One of the students is very happy with the end of the class, not so much with homework.

Another is mostly not very interested in his class, but not because he finds it difficult.

Well, the student over here is perfectly fine to be studious by himself.

He packs his stuff away, then gets up and goes over to one of his friends. "Hey, Ev, what've you got next?"

Eivar turns to face Thario, looks at his timetable, and says, "Math – you?"

"Aw, seriously? That means I have lit. We're doing some stupid poet from like two hundred years ago."

His face shows it all: he hates Keiruna literature. It's stupid analysis and reading into words and phrases and then writing it all down in a way that supports your arbitrary point.

Ugh.

Ev raises his eyebrow. "Good luck?"

"Ugh, have fun in math," he says, flipping him off and leaving.

Well, alright then.

Ev starts walking over to the math block.

"I have to go math class," Krian tells Kay, "have fun with your dead poet bookclub."

Kay briefly hugs Krian.

"Have fun not being allowed to make stuff up and call it personal interpretation."

Ev manages to get to math safely, despite the hazards and perils associated with high school: students in the corridors and gossip.

Except Ev's male, and would never partake in something such as gossip, of course not. Not even about the fact that Romar's parents both have amber eyes, whereas Romar himself has yellow ones.

… Yeah, actually, no, he doesn't like taking part in gossip like that. But, you know, just as an example of something scandalous.

He walks into the classroom and sits down.

Thario, meanwhile, arrives at the literature room and walks in, sitting down at his desk with much less enthusiasm than he had for Physics.

Does he have to be here? Really?

Ugh.

Not being control of what you learn: another amazing part of the school experience.

Kay arrives a little after Thario and sits next to him. After taking a moment to openly check Thario out, Kay gets the reading material out of his bag.

Speaking of eye colors, Eivar might just notice how this kid next to him happens to have dark-blue hair, but with purple eyes. He is also very tall. What an interesting combination of traits.

Eivar indeed has noticed that! And it's surprisingly uncommon for this sort of thing to happen, since he seems to be a hybrid, but it's not like that's a problem.

He smiles and gets out his stuff.

Thario is too busy being frustrated by the waste of his time to notice someone checking him out. Sorry, dude.

Krian gives out a mental sigh. Well, he should introduce himself to people, even if they might ask annoying questions.

"I'm Krian, and you are?" His smile is polite, of the tired variety.

Narration apologies, accepted.

"Hi, I'm Kay." He say.

"Hi," Thario says in response, trying to be somewhat civil but making it pretty clear he doesn't want to talk.

"I'm Ev," Eivar says in response.

Krian doesn't have to talk if he doesn't want to – Ev won't force him to – but at least they've now introduced themselves to one another.

Class starts anyway.

"Nice to meet you. I just moved from Latere with my cousin and aunt."

There is a follow-up question to be asked here. Krian very much doesn't want to answer it.

"It's nice to meet you too!"

Ev notices that Krian doesn't seem to want to elaborate, and so he instead asks, "How are you enjoying your time here so far?"

Ev himself is not a hybrid – again, not that there would be anything wrong with that if he were. He's a Rhune, one with amber eyes, in case anyone was wondering, and his species in general has rather good night vision but isn't as good at distinguishing different colors. He's also got rather good hearing, and is generally faster than average.

Faster than the average sapient creature, that is, of which there are three: Rhunes, Luna and Thamari.

It was a good idea not asking why Krian lives with his aunt, instead of his parents.

"Good, the big city is nicer than I expected. Going to school in a skyscraper was only novel for five minutes before the brutal reality of education sunk in. But this city has everything."

Krian is very much a hybrid. He is half-Luna (where he gets his hair), a quarter Rhune (eyes), and a quarter Thamar (height). Yes, that is very unusual, thank you very much.

It indeed is unusual! It's unusual to even be half anything, let alone further subdivisions!

"Yeah, huh, I guess it must be pretty weird if you haven't lived in a proper city before – the skyscraper bit admittedly throws a lot of people. It's not all school though, surely you must've realized that. Like, there are government buildings and offices and things on the other floors."

"Yes. I did realize they wouldn't fit all the students of the city into a single building," Krian says good naturedly, "and it isn't bad. It's not like I'm 10 and would want to spend recess running around the playground or something."

Ev tilts his head. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, fitting everyone in one school would be a bit weird with transit times and stuff. And there's a gym if you want to get some exercise, anyway."

"I meant I don't need time outdoors, not in the middle of school hours. There is a gym in my new home."

That last comment was very much deliberate.

Ev opens his mouth, raises an eyebrow, and responds, "Oh."

The teacher starts the lesson! Ev turns to face them and pay attention. It's fun math. Ev actually kinda like math. It makes sense and doesn't have annoying, confusing, conflicting parts that he has to sort out and mesh together. People do, which admittedly makes them interesting, so he's not really complaining.

But math is more straightforward.

Math! No poetic nonsense. Just doing the works and knowing when you actually got it right or wrong.

Exactly!

The teacher introduces the topic for the day and explains how to solve some problems of a specific format and why the method works and how it relates to other things they've covered so far, then hands out some work for them to do. She doesn't let them talk all through the lesson, but if they want to have short discussions about tangentially related things while also doing the work then that's okay.

Plus Ev has extra leeway because he's known to actually try at the subject, so she's even less likely to tell them off if they on fact decide to talk about a wholly unrelated topic. Ah, the perks of being a good student.

Krian is focused on the work, but he is fast enough that maybe someone could start a conversation.

Ev is also pretty quick at completing the work, but he maybe doesn't do it quite so quickly as Krian. He doesn't have any brilliant ideas for conversation topics, so instead he just mentions some current events at the school.

Which is not gossip, because it's important information that Krian might need to know.

Thario, meanwhile, is not in as much of a bad mood. For some reason, it's the anticipation of a literature lesson that makes him frustrated, not the actual lesson itself, because he's okay at writing in the specific structure and making up sensible-sounding arguments to back up his points.

Krian is curious enough to keep up the conversation. It is pretty clear he is not the gossipy type or the type that would use any kind of gossip but he is happy enough hearing what is happening in his new school.

Kay is doing well in this class too. He actually does pretty well in literature.

How nice for him!

"I'm Thar, by the way," he says to Kalor, realizing that he didn't actually introduce himself earlier. That was rude. Oops.

"I'm Kay, in case you forgot." He checks Thar out again.

Thario looks a bit confused but shrugs it off.

They are in fact studying some random poet from like 200 years ago.

It's not particularly fun, but fortunately there are lots of words that he can pretend have certain connotations and whatever.

Kay can't understand this attitude, the best classes are the ones you can bullshit through!

Thar much prefers classes to make sense and teach you some useful skill.

… Admittedly, bullshitting is a useful skill, but he doesn't like that it's a useful skill and he doesn't like it as a skill, so.

Heh, people can approach schools and skills in different ways, specially if they are cute Rhune boys.

Cute Rhune boys? Excuse me– yeah, okay, no, can't argue with that.

He's a cute Rhune boy with purple eyes! They're very purple. He likes his eyes.

Good thing he is so agreeable!

Those eyes are very lovely.

The lesson, meanwhile, continues. They analyze a couple of poems as a class, pointing out specific things that they've noticed that could be commented on, and work out a good example structure for the essay.

Eventually, class will end and it'll be time for Thar to have a study period in the library.

Which means he will try to be less generally annoyed and he'll talk to people who also have a study period.

Ev also has a study period, in which he will do some homework and also talk to people!

Kay is one of those people.

"So I just moved into town. How about you? Have you been here for a long time?"

Meanwhile, Krian gravitates back to Kay.

Thario is also someone who gravitates towards Eivar. He's sitting beside him, looking over some of his (Eivar's) notes to find out what he did in his previous lesson. Seeing as the question presumably wasn't aimed at him, he doesn't look up nor does he respond.

It seems like he's being less snappish right now.

Eivar himself has a few friends around, but they're fine having a conversation over to the left of him on the bench, instead of surrounding him.

Thario is on his right and it would seem Ev is talking to Kalor across the table!

"I've been here – in Kerune, that is – basically all my life?"

Well, that question wasn't aimed at Eivar, but at least there is a cute boy talking to him.

"I have visited before, when I was little, so I know some of the interesting places but not the people."

Krian is listening to the conversation, while checking his notes.

Oh, well, whoops. Thario didn't seem up to talking, so Eivar assumed it was meant at him.

"Oh, huh. I'm Ev, by the way – not sure I've introduced myself." (He hasn't, not to Kalor.) "Where'd you move from? What was it like there?" Then he looks at both Kalor and Krian and asks Krian, "… Wait, are you two cousins?"

"Yes, the one I menti-" Krian starts saying.

Kay grabs Krian in a sudden tight half-hug.

"We are! You noticed the family resemblance?"

"Mmnope, I was just saying since you two both seemed to arrive at the same point, you both started moving around together, and Krian mentioned earlier that he had a cousin."

Ev looks over to his right, notices Thar's lack of attention and nudges him.

Thario looks up at Krian and says, "Oh, hi. I'm Thar."

He waits for a response, since to do otherwise would be rude, but then he'll look back down at Ev's notes.

Krian rubs his shoulder, pretending to wince in pain.

"I'm Krian."

"I compliment your deduction powers. I'm Kay by the way. But yeah, we are actually half-cousins, our mothers were half-sisters. So, how can two newbies get some fun in the great Kerune?"

"Go to the cinema? Visit a club or something? Maybe a museum or a library or a bookstore if you're more into that kind of thing? It's a pretty big city, there are lots of these things."

"Yes, dude. But specific examples? For clubs. We can find everything else in the internet."

"Oh, right, yeah." He lists a few of the ones that the school crowd typically go to and approximately how to get there, "but you should probably look at them on your phone or something so you don't get lost on your way there. There are usually people there at the weekend. If you gimme your number I can text you when I know people are planning on going?"

He gets out his phone. It's rather fancy.

Kay pulls his phone, it's actually fancier.

"Sure," he taps a few things and his contact information appears in Ev's phone.

Well, the fact that Ev's phone was fancy was just because technology is rather advanced here – plus the fact that Ev's phone is not quite his life – but sure, you can have a fancier phone, Kay.

Ev accepts the contact request – security is an important feature of devices, can't just be sending miscellaneous troll information – and allows Kalor to contact him back.

He looks over at Thario and nudges him.

Thario, however, has already got his phone out and has sent a contact request to Kalor, since he pre-empted that Ev would suggest that.

Honestly, Ev, he's not that bad with this stuff.

"Thank you," Kay winks at Thar.

He too nudges the person next to him.

Krian looks up, and then absently sends contact information to both the other boys.

Theo accepts the request absently, then returns to the notes.

Apparently Ev takes good notes.

Ev likewise accepts the request. "So, what's– was it Latere? What's Latere like?"

"Latere was nice. Could be bigger, but it wasn't boring. A lot of tourism because we had beaches and some touristic sites where witch hunts happened. Our mutual great-grandaunt believed they were real. Krian would get all riled up about it."

"You can't blame me for that, she is a conspiracy theorist."

"Believed that witches were real, you mean? I mean, I don't want to sound rude or anything, but…"

He hesitates.

"She sounds nuts," contributes Thario.

Krian smiles brightly at Thario.

"She is."

"Well, yes. But Krian didn't need to argue every detail with her."

Thario raises an eyebrow at that, but it might not be obvious on account of him still looking over Ev's notes. (He's moved onto a different subject, now.)

Ev tilts his head at that, potentially as if he's conceding the point. He looks at Thar, sighs a little, and then turns back to Krian and Kay. Meanwhile, some amber stripes appear across the top of Thar's shoulders, gradually changing color to green, and then through purple and blue, then to red and back to amber, continuing that cycle.

It doesn't mean anything in particular, he's just showing off and metaphorically poking Thar at the same time.

He gets out a pen and some geography homework, starting to answer some multiple-choice questions with relative ease.

The counsins...

...look at the stripes with a quizzical look.

Thario looks at the stripes briefly, then decides to ignore them.

Noticing this, Ev makes a glowing line around Thario's neck.

And then a few concentric circles on the front of his jacket.

Thario looks at them briefly, but again ignores them.

And so, without looking, Ev puts a dot on Thar's nose.

Still without looking, Ev says to the cousins, "He was ignoring me."

Thario finally looks up when Ev places a dot on his nose and snuffs out the lights.

… Or at least, he tries, but he only gets the one on his nose and the one around his neck. He looks a bit frustrated, but continues to read through the notes, ignoring Ev.

"So you decided to act like a twelve year old with a crush?" Krian says.

Some lines and circles form behind Eivar, beyond his peripheral vision.

...Who made them? Who knows? Not anyone on this side of the table.

Ev shrugs. "Sure, let's go with 'twelve year old with a crush'."

Thar makes a small choking noise.

He doesn't notice the lumen behind Ev, seeing as he's looking down at the work.

Ev was trying to keep a straight face, but no, he kinda has to laugh at Thar's response.

There are now tiny purple and pink hearts around their heads.

Krian is paying a lot of attention to his notes now.

"I sudden feel like we should leave these two alone."

Ev shrugs. "You can if you want, but if you hadn't realized, we're in a library. It's not like we're gonna fuck right here."

He reaches up to 'pop' one of the hearts. (Really, he just puts his finger near it and then snuffs it, but it looks kinda like he pops it.)

Thar makes a kinda prolongued strangled sound.

"That was just me concerned with you. I don't mind staying and watching."

The other hearts snuff out.

Krian nudges Kay and gives a look that says "are you serious?" with sheer expression of the eyes alone.

The choking, strangled sound has stopped.

Thar is still a little bit shellshocked, and isn't really reading much.

Eivar still hasn't dismissed the rest of the light pressed against Thar's clothes.

Oh well, it can stick there until he stops paying attention, he supposes.

More Geography! Yay. Rivers and shit.

"You okay there?" Kay asks.

No answer.

His eyes might be a little more purple than usual, if you were able to see them, which you aren't, since he's looking down at some work.

Ev looks at him, leans over to have a look at his face, and then decides, "He'll be alright."

"Okay. Is he always this adorably shy?"

Thario would have something to say about that, but right now he's busy trying not to burst into flames.

He snuffs a few more of the lumen stripes, leaving the ones on his shoulders.

Fortunately for Thario, Ev is not mean enough to put them back after he snuffs them. He keeps the shoulder ones going, though.

Ev is also not mean enough to draw attention to what Thario is thinking right now, because that would be mean to air such things in front of strangers, but he does respond, "Not always."

"Have you know each other for long?" Krian asks, so Kay doesn't make Thar too embarrassed.

"Eh," Ev waves his hand. "A while? Not literally all our lives – I think we only properly met like seven years ago – but we've been pretty good friends through high school for sure."

Thario decides that his attempt at looking down and trying not to seem embarrassed is failing miserably. He shoves Ev's notes back over to Ev and looks up at Kay.

That might be a goading expression.

"I love the adorably challenging look," Kay tells Thar.

He really does.

"Cool" Krian adds quickly, "I don't currently have friendships this old, unless you count Kay."

Thario's eyes don't noticeably flash more purple. They do, however, flash more purple. If someone had really precise color vision, they might notice this fact.

He stays silent.

He does, however, create a little blob of lumen behind Kay's head, starting off purple and blob-like and slowly morphing its way into a vivid blue lightning bolt shape.

Ev continues smiling, nudges Thario lightly, and continues the conversation: "Oh, huh. I guess it must be hard leaving your friends from Latere? I've still got a bunch of people I'm in contact with from before high school."

Kay looks at Thario like a work of art.

Briefly he turns around and snuffs out the lumen in the air.

Then he turns around and looks at Thario with the exact same look as before.

"So... would like to go to a movie sometime?"

"Oh, yes. I wasn't originally from Latere, just spent the last couple of years there. Still moving around a lot doesn't help, you know?"

Krian sounds uncomfortable, like he was earlier.

Thario blinks a bit confusedly.

"What?"

Ev nods his head in agreement, then decides that he's actually more interested in what's happening between Thar and Kalor.

"I was asking you to see a movie."

"Yeah, no, I heard that."

He still looks like he's missing a part of the puzzle.

Eivar looks at Thar out of the corner of his eye and internally sighs.

"You can just say no. It's part of the risk someone takes when asking another person out. Or you can think for while."

"I… We haven't even spoken? Like a proper conversation. Or anything?"

Blink.

"You haven't been very talkative."

"… And what, that turns you on?"

"No, but maybe you're just shy because there are people around." Kay glances at Eivar.

Krian also glances at Eivar, but his glance is sort of helpless.

"Um."

He thinks for a moment, but then decides, "I think that's a no for now…? Maybe at some point, though?"

Just… y'know… not when he's only just met you?

"Sure dude, this isn't a limited time offer. Let me know if you change your mind."

Kay doesn't look at all bothered by this.

"So, are either of you in the Advanced Art class?"

"Mmnope. Fortunately, with Art being an elective after we get to sixteen years old, I do not have to do Art at all."

"I'm… Yeah, I'm kinda with Thario on this one."

"Oh, man, I love art class. Can't understand how someone can live without it."

"He is pretty good actually. You should check his blog."

Since they do have Kay's contact info this isn't hard to check. It contains mostly drawings and some paints, but also two sculptures. Among the best is a painting of some beach resort and a pencil drawing of Krian.

"Oh, cool!" Ev says enthusiastically. "I'm not great at doing stuff on paper, but I can do some pretty good lumen diagrams."

Not that he's trying to brag, he's just contributing to the conversion.

... Okay, maybe he kinda wants to brag.

Thario also has a look and agrees they're pretty good. He, personally, is terrible at art and hated the subject with a burning passion.

He agrees with Ev about his ability to lune, but really he thinks Ev is pretty good at doing diagrams on paper too – have you seen his notes?

Krian is actually curious about these notes, if Ev is okay with letting him see.

"I am not bad at lumen, but I have a much easier time with paper and the results appeal to me better."

Ev is indeed okay with that! Or, well, presumably okay with that, Thar doesn't actually ask him.

He shows the notes to Krian. Look: diagrams and good penmanship and comprehensibility and stuff!

Thar doesn't usually rely on Ev's notes this much, but he usually at least glances over them a bit to check he didn't miss or misunderstand anything in a lesson, and usually they cover the same stuff even when they're not in the same class, so that's nice.

"I guess it's kinda annoying that it disappears if you forget about it? And you have to remember how to make it each time, too, but that's not so much of a problem for me."

Those are actually good notes! Krian is less fond of diagrams himself, but he sees how Ev's notes are easy to comprehend.

"Yes, you can take pictures, but they don't really capture the lumen well enough for me. Specially the volume and movement."

Ev shrugs. "I don't really take pictures of my artwork. I don't really do much artwork."

"He's pretty good at doing little people-figures though," Thario inserts into the conversation.

"Is he?" Kay asks invitingly.

He conjures up a few small copies of the people currently present and gets them to move around, acting like little copies of the respective people.

They're really quite realistic, for lumen figures. Thario's is looking a bit mopey, but has the vibrant eyes and good detail work on the face, and the hair, and… all over, really. They all do.

It's more cool than creepy, but they're very in-depth models.

"Oh, your copies are very good, can't quite get my natural charm, but it's pretty close."

Krian looks between the copies and the originals.

"The mannerisms are... quite impressive."

"Why thank you," he says, snuffing all but his and Thar's. They get to stand on the table and start fencing with small glowing lumen swords – amber for Ev's and purple for Thar's.

Again, kinda creepily realistic (but more cool than creepy), even though Ev and Thar have presumably never fenced before.

It doesn't seem to take much of Ev's attention to keep this up.

Thar looks a little bit surprised by the accuracy of the copies, despite having seen them before, and then watches the fencing figures for a bit.

"You two fence? Is this a memory?"

"Nnnope."

Ev shrugs. "We haven't done it before, but I'm pretty sure it'd go something like this."

Thar's copy starts off being a bit tentative with its jabs, defending from the jabs returned by Ev's, but then really gets into the swing of things, managing to make Ev's go on the defensive.

It's really weirdly detailed, and Ev's still not even paying much attention to it – he's going back over some of the geography questions to make sure he hasn't made any obvious mistakes.

"Okay... that is impressive."

Two more tiny figures show up: Kay and Krian on a tiny lumen bench, eating popcorn. They are identifiable and pretty good for lumen produced by a Thamar, but nowhere near Ev's level.

"Huh, cool!" Ev says, looking at Kay's lumen-models.

(His own are still interacting in the corner, now appearing to have finished their fencing and instead are just 'talking' about various things.)

Thario isn't particularly good at making models of people with lumen – he tries, and they're recognizable, but he gets the colors a bit off and the detail is a little fuzzy.

After that, he just makes a complicated structure in the air, semi-transparent so you can see through it, and keeps adding detail to it. He's gotta show off somehow.

Kay nudges Krian.

Krian tries for something from memory and now there is a tiny but detailed section of beach, showing a location from Kay's paintings. Next to the model there is the word "click one" between a "«" and a "»" symbols.

Thar looks over at the display, slowing how quickly he modifies his structure with complexity but still continuing, and studies the picture.

Eivar does likewise! Then he taps the '»' button. Presumably he'll get another picture?

Yup. It changes to show Krian and Kay, maybe a few years younger, on a beach.

"Oh, nice! Was this back at Latere or somewhere before then?"

Thario also looks suitably impressed.

He still adds to the complexity of his structure, though. He doesn't want to be outdone.

"Latere's main beach."

"Oh, I remember that day."

"You look like you're having fun there," Ev says, smiling.

"Yes, but I remember because I finally convinced Krian to go after his crush later that evening."

"It barely qualified as a crush."

"Oh?" Ev asks, sounding interested.

"Oh, he crushed for this girl hard for a week before finally talking with her."

"She was good looking! And most of that week I was busy working so it wasn't like I could just ask her out or anything."

"Aww," declares Ev.

"What he said," says Thar, tilting his head to indicate Ev.

"So aww, until four days later she, displaying amazing observational skills, realized I worked at the resort and nicely told me we should be friends. Which made things so fun when we both had to hang together because Kay started dating her cousin."

"First, it was her uncle, they just are bizarrely close in age. Second, the important thing is that you got out of your shell and learned some sort of valuable life lesson, or I assume you did. Her uncle was distracting."

Thar smirks.

"Awwh!" Ev repeats in a different tone. "I mean, you've gotta put yourself out there if you want to find anyone, so good on you for trying anyway?"

"Thanks," Krian says dryly, "maybe someday I will reach the master level of asking a boy to a movie in the first day of school."

"That is the spirit!" Kay says pulling Krian into a hug that is a bit too much like a chokehold to be comfortable.

"Maybe someday you will," Ev responds, smirking.

Thar watches the interplay with amusement, then asks, "Are you two gonna get any work done before the bell goes?" He looks at his watch and decides, "Uh, actually, probably not, since it's just about to go."

And indeed it does go. It's now lunch.

Krian looks at his notes and sighs.

"Hey, teenagers are supposed to socialize. How we can do that without meeting people?"

"Yeah, but you could've been doing some work while talking with us."

Thario snuffs out his weird, complicated geometric lumen thing, packs his stuff away, hands Ev's notes back to Ev, and gets up.

Ev leaves his small people models going for a bit – they're being weirdly cute and affection right now, d'aww – but packs his stuff away too.

Krian keeps his model while packing his things.

Kay takes a long time searching for his pen, because it rolled over and was under Krian's lumen, but then off they go to lunch.

The cafeteria is easily found! In part because Ev and Thar know exactly where they're going, but it's still pretty obvious anyway.

Fortunately, lunch time is staggered, so there is not quite so ridiculous an influx of people. Thario and Ev both get food and then find a table to sit down at, in a similar arrangement to as in the library: Ev and assorted friends on one side, Thar on the other with some spaces left around them for other people, such as Krian and Kay.

What a fortuitous happenstance! Would Eivar be okay with introducing some of his other friends?

Eivar totally would!

He points at the individual people as he mentions them: Matil, a Rhune with amber eyes; Laro, a Thamar who typically only has short sleeves; Thir, who is a Thamar and pretty– pretty buff, he has a girlfriend; Romar, a Rhune who is a little bit preppy, one of the drama crowd; and Alios, who is a Luna with some ridiculously amber hair.

The group sorta rotates between two tables, though, so this isn't all of them. They respond with varying degrees of friendliness, mostly trying to make an effort to seem nice.

Thar's eyes do totally not linger on Matil as Eivar mentions him.

… Thar likes amber eyes. They're pretty, okay? It's not his fault.

Krian replies politely and tries to commit names to memory.

Kay won't judge Thar for his lingering eyes! I mean, maybe Kay's eyes linger on Thir or Romar for a moment too.

It's fine, Ev understands that not everybody has super amazing memories for names, so he'll try to be considerate and mention the names again or give a reminder of who's who when they come up in conversation.

Meanwhile, he eats. It's some sort of poultry meat with a starchy root vegetable (yes, like a potato) and other vegetables, and is actually pretty decent quality for a cafeteria. School meals in Rhunya (and across the whole country, in fact) are pretty good.

Krian wants to know if he and Kay share classes with any of Ev's friends.

Specially Art class.

The cousins are eating basically the same thing, a kind of traditional Thamar pasta, because of course the Thamar have a traditional pasta.

Thar has the same food as Ev, and doesn't contribute much at this point – Ev knows more about their friends than he does, because Ev seems to have a creepily accurate memory for this sort of thing.

Plus, Theo's rather fine sitting here quietly, munching away.

Matil and Romar share a few classes with Ev – math, literature and history – and Thir and Laro share literature with Thar and Kay. Romar's got bio with Thar and does photography but not general art, and Alios has Art with Kay.

There are probably some other crossovers but Ev doesn't have everyone's timetable totally memorized, so this is the best he can do. The others are engaged in a different discussion right now and so they don't contribute themselves.

Well, the cousins can engage in conversation with non-Ev and non-Thar people, right? Not that they are going to exclude the two.

They can! They won't be excluded, but they might not necessarily find the topic at hand particularly interesting.

Maybe they will, though? The current topic is: girls.

The guys might be amenable to opening the topic up to 'attractive people', though.

Kay is not interested in girls himself. He is curious enough about that fraction of his classmates to listen to the conversation, but wouldn't mind changing the topic to attractive people. Kay will even try not talk about himself much, even if he is an obvious candidate for the topic.

It might be his half-Luna side showing, but Krian is okay with talking about girls and attractive people. Either option is fine.

Well, Ev would probably prefer to talk about attractive people more generally, because otherwise it removes a lot of people he could talk about.

Thario doesn't really contribute many of his own opinions on people he finds attractive.

This might be conspicuous. It might also not be. He doesn't tend to contribute many of his own opinions in conversations like this anyway.

Kay contributes by mentioning things he finds attractive. His tastes are variable, but he finds guys taller than him very hot, but that isn't a requirement. Which is good since he stands 6'5" tall. Among other things he likes: guys with dark hair and purple eyes.

One of the people that fall under Kay's description of "hot" rolls his eyes.

Another blinks, processes it, and then gives him a bit of a flat look.

Eivar contributes with a few features he finds attractive: on guys, he prefers 'lean and lithe' to 'stocky'.

It probably goes mostly without saying to anyone who knows him that he wants someone with potential.

Krian likes muscle definition more than muscle mass. Both for guys and girls. He doesn't have any feelings on height being taller than the average. From there it gets fuzzier, he likes non-black hair colors, but some girls with long straight black hair are very attractive to him... he proceeds describing traits he likes.

Rhunes with good cheekbones and jaws are among Krian's interest, and he likes ambitious people too. It is not obvious whether he commented that on purpose or to make it known to certain people at the table.

Kay is not actually paying attention to that flat look.

The other guys at the table have varying opinions – most don't have any interest in guys for themselves, but they can still clarify what they expect to be attractive or admire certain traits without being into guys themselves – but the ones who do care have rather varying opinions. One thinks that Luna and feminine Rhune guys are somewhat more attractive, though he doesn't say it in that way, and one thinks that muscles are basically the be all and end all of attractiveness.

Thar still doesn't really input much, though if he's prompted he'll probably agree or disagree with something someone's said.

Do we learn anything interesting about Thar's tastes?

Specially while Krian is steering the conversation to discreetly figure out what people think of traits that just happen to match Kay's?

You happen to find out that Thar likes amber eyes, yes. He's also into well defined muscle, but like Krian, he's not much a fan of ridiculously oversized muscles. He's somewhat like Ev, but prefers people to look like runners, so is overall more into Rhunes. It's not an absolute rule, though. 

They don't find out much else, or at least not much of interest.

Krian compares the information in his head. Then he gives Eivar a briefly look before pretending to pay attention to something someone else said.

Ev has precisely no idea what Krian could possibly mean, and conveys as such with a look.

Okay, so maybe he totally knows, but he gives Krian a bit of a shut your mouth look. In a nice way, but still – zip it.

Turning back to the conversation, he continues it, trying to include the others a bit more by talking about Luna and various girls. Any particular hair colors people like?

Krian replies with a your secret is safe with me look, followed by a smile. Or at least that is what Krian tries to do.

Krian likes Luna with brighther hair colors.

Ev gets the point anyway.

This conversation will continue the rest of the way through lunch – weaving between different groups of people (male, female, androgynous, Luna, Thamari, Rhunes, tall, short, etc.) – unless Krian or Kay have another topic they wish to discuss?

Thar will continue to try to seem like he's contributing to the conversation, but overall probably not reveal any more about his interests.

He might look at Ev and Matil quite a bit at points, but it will (hopefully) not be noticeable.

Krian steers the conversation more towards past relationships. This happens shortly after Thar glanced Ev. It must be a coincidence.

Thar has, sadly enough for him, not been in a relationship before.

Eivar notices the not-so-subtle topic change and… allows it. He contributes to the topic a bit: he had a Luna girlfriend for a few months about two years ago.

Krian never got to anything serious, only several small flings: a perk of living in a touristic town.

He might be trying to (not so subtly) comfort Thar.

Kay's record for a relationship was two months. He also enjoyed the perks of living in a touristic town, and living there his entire life meant that he also was familiar with the locals.

That is, Ev supposes, a perk of small towns. You can get to know everyone, and there are fewer people to mix up if you're not great with that sort of thing.

Ev personally thinks he'd probably prefer the city – having never living in a small town, he's not totally sure, but he's pretty certain – and notes as such.

And eventually, lunch will end.

And when it does end, a… Rhune? Probably? She has quite strongly-colored blue hair, though, in addition to the blue eyes, so maybe not? She comes over and says hi to Ev, since she neglected him all lunch.

Would he care to introduce her to his new friends, quickly, before she runs off to Art?

He indeed would! "Hey, guys, this is Rashel. Rashel, this is Kay," he says, pointing at Kay, "and Krian," he continues, then pointing at Krian. "I think… I think Kay has Art now, too?" he says, pretty sure that Kay now has Art.

Rashel is three-quarters Rhune and one-quarter Luna, in case anyone was wondering.

"I do. Sadly, some people," he mock-glares at Eivar, "don't appreciate art as much they should."

"Nice to meet you," Krian says to the fellow hybrid.

"Yeah, I know. I've tried to convince them over to our side but they don't seem to understand," she says to Kay. She then smiles at Krian and says, "You too."

Thar laughs. He seems to think Rashel's pretty great.

"The curse of being an artist."

"If I only wasn't too proud to spend a portion of my life doing horrible art, instead of learning something I could be good at."

"Anyway," says Rashel, interrupting. "We should probably get to Art, and you guys should probably get to… whatever you have. Thuria?"

"Yeah, Thar and I have Thuria."

"Alright then," says Rashel. "See ya then."

She seems to be waiting for Kay to follow.

"Me too," Krian says to Eivar and Thar, following them.

Kay follows Rashel.

"Do you like the Art Teacher?"

"Eh, the one I've got is alright. She's usually good at pointing out small things in a piece that seem weird, but it usually helps to make the overall effect better, so that's nice. There are a few different teachers, though – I dunno if you have the same one as me? People usually sorta move between classes when we're actually doing stuff anyway."

"Ah, I ask because I never actually had an art class before, not at school. Learned a lot from my great aunt but she isn't... your typical teacher. I love drawing, but not sure what it will be like when it's part of your grades."

"Oh, right. We learn a bit about the histories of specific artists and art movements and things, and then we do projects – usually there's a theme, but that might be a movement, or a style, or a thing we have to include, or a material we have to use, so it's pretty varied."

"Possibly not that bad. I can always say that my genius isn't recognized if I get bad grades," Kay says cheerfully.

"… Yyyou could, but they tend to be pretty fair about it, by judging technical skill and stuff as well."

"I'm joking."

"Right," she says. "I was just saying, though, they are generally fair about things."

"Good. So what do you like to do?"

"Uh, I usually do sketches and portraits of people, but I'm also into photorealism and stuff like that."

Not so much impressionism, though she does appreciate that some people like that sort of style.

"I like doing people too. Also liked doing watercolours of Latere's beaches. I never had much opportunity to do impressionism."

She looks at him flatly when he says 'doing people', but then continues, "Oh, that's a shame."

It sorta is, because he might like it.

But it's not.

Kay smiles brightly in answer to her flat look.

"I have more free time now, so it might be something to try, even if it isn't a school project."

"Yeah, it could be good."

And then they arrive at the classroom! Would Kay like to sit with her? She sits with a mix of people – some guys, a few girls, of varying species, but all seeming rather friendly. Alternatively he could find another table to sit down at?

Kay will sit with her, apparently not thinking much about it. If there is time, Kay will introduce himself to Rashel's friends.

There is indeed time! They probably have a couple of minutes before the teacher actually starts the lesson proper, and then they'll have time during class today to talk while most of them do some project work.

Kay will probably do something else for a few lessons, and then he can start the next thing with them, but he should be at the same table and should be able to speak to them anyway.

That is nice. What are they doing? And what is Kay's project?

Rashel has sketched out a rather detailed drawing of a room – she's now going back over the shading to make it even more realistic and to fix some small details.

Kay's task, right now, is to make a list of materials he's used before, the ones he preferred, and any he's interested in trying out. After that, he can have a look over some summaries of the different art movements they've looked at, as well as a list of the artists they've already covered. He might have quite a lot of work to catch up on, if his previous education wasn't as comprehensive as this.

The others at the table are doing a variety of things – one is making a wire sculpture, another is drawing using charcoal, and then the others are doing various things in a similar vein.

A couple of people in the classroom seem to be trying to do complicated illusions, but it's difficult to work on that over a variety of lessons, seeing as you need to remember how to precisely recreate the object.

Oh, well. He was expecting this to involve a lot of reading.

Kay makes the list of what he used: Mostly second-hand or cheap stuff, charcoal and water-colors, so he is curious about things like wire sculptures.

It doesn't take long to make that list. Sigh. He gets to reading.

Rashel continues with her project – it's coming along rather nicely, actually.

The teacher comes 'round, and as Rashel has already mentioned, points out some small details on people's work that they can alter or emphasize to help increase or decrease a particular effect, if they so desire. She also looks over the list of things Kay's used and determines that they'll probably do some technical skills workshops – the other students could do with having some refresher courses on these things, anyway.

It turns out Kay actually likes reading about long-dead artists and their contributions! He is glad with the accommodating teacher.

That's good, then!

Some of the other people at the table might talk to him, but mostly it's just Rashel when she's not too busy actively focusing on her project.

"So, where did you move from?"

"Latere, it's a beachside town... Nice place."

"Oh, cool," she nods. "Any particular reason you decided to move to a big city, then?"

"Krian's parents left him some properties here, we would have moved sooner, but there were some bureaucratic problems along the way because my father wanted a share after divorcing my mom."

"Ah, okay," she says, and decides she won't pry.

"How are you liking it so far?"

"It's been great! The big city is fun and exciting."

"That's good!" she responds, smiling. "I haven't really left it, though I've moved around the place a bit. There's lots of stuff to do, though – I assume Ev's covered all the basics?"

"He did! Ev was very helpful. Are you friends with Thar too?"

"Yeah! Have you spoken with him much?"

"Kinda, just today, but they were friendly. I am tempted to set Ev up with my cousin, but that is the kind of thing that needs more time to think about."

Yes, Kay doesn't see anything weird with him asking Thar out on their first day of school, while also wanting time to think about the possibilities of Krian and Ev.

She shrugs. "I don't really know what your cousin's like, nor if Ev's interested in him. They might not even need pushing together, depending on how they get along."

"I'm not sure about Ev, but Krian is too careful at times."

She thinks for a second about how to answer that, and then decides on, "Ev is… not really careful in the overcautious sense."

Kay tilts his head quizzically.

She hastens to continue. "I just mean… He's not likely to be overcautious if he wants to go for it and knows it's available to him, and I'm pretty sure he'll… know it's available."

Not the best choice of words, but still pretty accurate.

"So is he a go-getter and a telepath?"

She thinks for a second, and then decides that, "Yeah, really he kinda seems to be."

"Then I will just think nice things about Krian around him and everything will sort out by itself!"

Rashel shrugs and continues with her artwork.

Kay continues his reading.

They might pass some time like that, then!

After a bit, Rashel will ask, "What other subjects are you taking? All three sciences, or which two of them and a language?"

"Bio, Phys and Thuria. Krian is taking all the sciences, because he is a nerd like that."

He says the word "nerd" with a lot of fondness.

"Oh, huh! We might be in the same class for Thuria then – I'm taking it too."

"What's the class like?" Kay asks.

"Pretty good," she says. "The teacher isn't a native speaker, but she did some immersion stuff for a while, so she's actually really good at the language, and she's also good with all the technical linguistic stuff so she can actually get the point across."

"Alright, I only really care about learning it for the chance it could be useful while travelling, but alright."

"Yeah, but anyway, she's a good teacher. And the classes are usually pretty fun, at least most people seem to think so."

"Good, are the other teachers good as well?"

"Mmh," she responds, nodding with her pencil between her teeth. She finishes what she's doing on her artwork and grabs 'hold of the pencil again, then continues, "The school's really good at separating us into groups that we work well in, and the teachers all do training courses and things to make sure they're up to date with effective teaching methods and… things. It's really great."

"I remember hearing something about this when mom and Krian were picking a school."

"Oh, really? I think a lot of schools in the area do it – it's part of a scheme that the city set up."

It's not particularly interesting, but it's at least a topic for some quick smalltalk.

"I didn't pay much attention, Krian is the smart one." Kay looks at her work. "That is getting really nice."

"Thanks!" she says, smiling at him. "I'm really proud of how it's turned out, actually, and it's kinda surprising how much fun it's been."

"I can see why!"

They continue smalltalking until the end of class.

And, five minutes before class ends, Rashel starts packing stuff away and suggesting that other people do likewise – it wouldn't do to be late to their next class, gasp.

Even if it is gym, since lots of people don't seem to like that.

Given his muscles, is it any surprise that Kay likes gym class?

It… is not much of a surprise, no!

Rashel likes racket-games, personally, since she's good at running, but she's not too much a fan of games involving tackling. Contact sports: no thanks.

Fortunately, today they are doing tennis! Or, at least, a sport that's very like tennis, even if it might not be precisely tennis.

Sorry, Kay.

There are some other people there too! Like Thar!

And Ev! Ev is here too.

So is Krian!

Is this not-actually tennis played in groups larger than two people against two people?

It… could be! But no, not unless you plan on making it kinda boring for the individual players or add some ridiculous complexity to it.

You could, however, play this not-tennis's equivalent of 'king of the court', where you have like 7 people to a single court, they each do a single return and then run to the other side of the net, and then do another return, and it continues like that. Each person gets a certain number of 'lives', and failing to return a hit means you lose a life, and then you're out if you lose all your lives.

So, no. But you could in theory play it with more than four people, if the people so desire and the teachers agree.

That sounds like an interesting idea!

It does! Rashel managed to the the teacher's approval for the situation, and after they all get changed, they can commence!

Rashel's pretty good at this, so she's not likely to be out first, but she's not the best.

Thar? Thar is really pretty good at this. He likes running, and he practices a lot, and running is a thing he is definitely good at.

Ev is not quite as good as Thar – in fact, Thar is quite a bit better at the speed aspect – but Ev is really good at predicting where the ball's gonna go, or rather where people are going to hit the ball, and he makes up for his reduced speed with enthusiasm, effort and a little bit of predicting people, so overall he's pretty good too.

Kay is not all that great at speed or precision, but he still enjoys the game.

Krian's reflexes and speed are amazing; he will be up there ranking behind Thar.

Eventually they'll be left with a single winner (it's Thar), but then they can just play another round.

This time, Thar will not win. Ev will make sure of it.

And Rachel will frown occasionally, looking disapprovingly at Ev.

Honestly, such children.

Krian might get even more competitive this time. Thar will not win this time.

Well, congratulations, Thar will indeed not win this time.

He will, however, make it a challenge, so good luck.

Ha. That's hardly challenging.

Okay, maybe it's a little challenging, but Ev's not gonna tell Thar that.

And eventually Thar will go down, and it will be between Ev and Krian.

But who will win?

Krian will, of course. We established that Thar wouldn't so that leaves Krian.

Kay might be a bit distracted by Thar athleticism.

Well, Thar will be busy not paying attention to that because he's not super in the mood for that right now, but he'll watch the game quite happily.

Of course Krian wins. And Ev ever-so-graciously thanks him for the good game, and then they should probably start another one, because they have some time left before the end of class, but it might not be too long left.

Ev doesn't think he'll win this one either.

Krian wins again, mostly because he got excited from the first victory. He thanks Ev sportmanship. He appreciates it.

Well, Ev is happy to be appreciated.

Rashel's happy that everyone seemed to enjoy it. Now, however, it's approximately the end of the lesson, so they should collect all the rackets, put them into the store cupboard, and go get changed.

Indeed they should! Thar volunteers to gather the rackets together, taking the ones from Rashel and Ev and generally just seeming to be in a good mood.

The cousins are in a good mood too. They hand over the rackets and go change.

Ev goes to get changed.

As does Rashel, smiling from the whole experience.

And meanwhile, Thar puts the rackets away and then follows Ev to go get changed.

Afterwards, he hangs around outside the changing rooms, waiting for people to congregate so he can talk to them a bit and say bye.

Krian does the same until Kay leaves the changing room.

...And when Kay is done changing they leave. Kay has a cooking class to attend. They say bye to the people they have met.

They all say bye back!

And then they talk about some stuff a bit – nothing important, just catching up on some things from the rest of the day, and it's not like any of them have a desperate need to get back home, so that's fine.

And eventually, they leave to go their separate ways!

Well, the cousins go home together first, but otherwise: they go their separate ways.

Not much happens that evening.

Ev takes the metro home – woo, metro – and texts a few people that evening, doing homework and catching up on anything he might have missed during the day. He sends Kay and Krian some other people's contact details – there might be some interest in the new kids, who knows – and has dinner, and then most of the day is up and he decides to go to sleep.

He's at school the next day, bright and early.

Thar is indeed also at school the next day, bright and early.

So is Rashel! She's speaking with Thar.

Here is Krian and where there is Krian...

...there is a Kay!

Are any of their new acquaintances up to a conversation?

Thar and Rashel seem like they might be a bit busy right now, so not unless you just want to stand around for a but minutes.

Ev, however, is always up for a conversation. He's surrounded by some of the people that Kay and Krian met yesterday during the study period and at lunch.

"Hey!"

"Hey, Ev! How are you?"

"Hi," Krian says.

He then remembers something from yesterday and looks a Thar for a moment, before returning to pay attention to Ev.

Thar isn't look in Krian's direction, so he doesn't notice this.

Ev smiles. "Yeah, I'm good – you?"

He notices Krian's look, but doesn't react to it.

"I'm great, baked some cookies yesterday, we might take a martial art class but Krian can't pick a style."

Krian shrugs, "I want something practical and useful, but not many of those would put Kay and me in the same classroom."

They are close in height, but it is pretty obvious which of them is Thamar and which of them is only part-Thamar.

"Oh, cool!" he says in response. "I don't do much cooking, but I know some basics. Rashel and Thar are pretty good, though. As for the martial arts… I'm really not sure? I don't do much of that sort of thing, but one of the guys might."

"Cooking is fun! I made mom's and Krian's favorite cookies!"

"Oh, who would know then?" Krian asks.

"Humm," he responds, thinking a bit. "Probably Thir? He might know some stuff that'd fit you both. Or maybe Alios? I think he does some general fitness stuff, but he might also do some martial arts or know about them."

"I will talk to them then," Krian says appreciative.

Krian goes Thir-or-Alios-ward.

"Thir does martial arts too? And of course he has a girlfriend," Kay says miserably.

Thir and Alios are standing rather close to each other, so fortunately Krian can get input from both of them at once.

In response to Kay, Ev smirks a bit and says, "Yeah, he does."

"I mean, it's not easy to find guys stronger than me." He shrugs. "Do you know if anyone's got plans to go to that club?"

"I think some people are going there midweek?"

Midweek, as in on the fifth day of their ten-day week. It's currently the second day of the week, and the fifth, ninth and tenth days of the week are typically breaks from school and work, like a regular weekend. Only the ninth and tenth days are referred to as the weekend, though; the fifth day is referred to as 'midweek'.

"Great! Are you planning to go there too?"

"Yeah, probably? Unless I have stupid amounts of homework or something. Thar and Rashel might, too – I'm not sure."

"Rashel looks like the type that is fun to go clubbing with. Not sure about Thar."

"Yeah," he says, smiling. "Rashel's great when she's in the mood for it. Thar can be pretty good when he unwinds, but sometimes that takes a bit."

He thinks a bit, then decides that he in fact will tell Kay something. Making sure the other guys aren't too focused on what he's saying, he says, "Rashel and Thar work pretty well together. They'd make a cute couple, and I'd set them up, but unfortunately I don't think they're into each other that way."

"And it's likely their friendship will go up in flames if you try?"

Ev laughs. "Nah, I'd be more worried about my friendship with them."

Gabe also laughs. "It's so funny how people don't like when you meddle!"

"I'm sure I could get them to be okay with me meddling, if I really cared that much, but it would overall be worse. Plus, while they really could work well as a couple, I don't actually think they'd get to the coupley stage."

Krian returns. "Hey, got a couple of recommendations from Thir."

"Talking about not pairing up Rashel and Thar."

"Huh," Krian says with a look at Ev, then he explains the two martial arts Thir recommended.

Ev listens patiently. He's probably not going to use this information, and it's probably mainly aimed at Kay, but he'll still listen just in case.

They talk about it until the bell.

And eventually the bell does go!

Ev has government with Kay, and Krian has government with Thar and Rashel.

Thar and Rashel start walking to class, still talking to each other

Urgh, government.

Krian goes to class. He isn't actually following Rashel and Thar, but ends up going at same pace as them simply because they're going in the same direction.

Well, see, government can be kinda boring, but it's not solely focused on the structure of the government and how the things interact – it also includes information on laws, how they affect the individual, government schemes that are in place, pros and cons of historical schemes and systems and policies, and overall teaches you a lot that isn't just focused on 'these politicians do these things here and it's all very boring'.