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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 1, 2010 2:38:24 GMT -5
It was day. There was mediocre rock music. Alex was there, curled up in one of the recliners with his shoes off.
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Post by Blaise Park on May 1, 2010 3:18:14 GMT -5
Blaise managed to haul himself into the student lounge, though his arms and legs were burning from exertion. His sports bag was slung over one shoulder, carrying his racket and balls, along with a few other things. He'd spent all morning hitting tennis balls at the wall in the gym for practice and had quickly lost track of time. The student lounge was far closer to the gym than his dorm, thankfully.
He tossed the duffel bag onto the sofa and leaned against the armrest, stretching out his right arm. The muscles were horribly sore, particularly around his shoulder. It had been far too long since he'd actually pushed himself, and he was paying the price.
He had pulled off his tennis shoes to rub his sore feet when he caught sight of the boy in the recliner. "Oh, hey." Blaise smiled at the other boy. "You're Alex, right?"
Blaise was dressed in the same sparkling white polo and blue-and-white gym shorts that he had worn the other day when he first met Alex. His hair was slightly moist and his face was flushed, but other than that his grooming was immaculate. He certainly showed no signs of strenuous physical activity.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 1, 2010 3:31:32 GMT -5
Alex smiled and sat up straighter. "And you're Blaise, aren't you? You look like you've had an interesting morning- or are about to."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 2, 2010 22:50:49 GMT -5
Blaise grinned, flashing perfect teeth as sparkling white as his outfit. He shifted around to sit on the back of the sofa, resting his feet on the cushions.
"I've been playing tennis against the wall all morning," he said. "I haven't found anyone else here that actually plays, though. My roommate's lucky to get the ball over the net."
Blaise reached down into his duffel bag and fished a large Evian water bottle from the side pocket. He flipped open the top of the bottle idly, looking back at Alex.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 2, 2010 23:48:38 GMT -5
"Hmm. Have you asked the Aetai, or Rudeth Volkova? I think they're all fairly athletic." Wow, he was pretty. It might be fun to get to know him.
He smiled and shrugged. "I would offer, but I've never played before either, and I doubt I'd be any better unless I learned some enhancement spells and outright cheated."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 3, 2010 0:02:47 GMT -5
Blaise chuckled, then swallowed a drink of his water. "I think I know who Notos Aetai is," he mused. "If he could actually play a decent game, I might be able to put up with him."
He seemed to consider something for a moment, looking meaningfully at Alex. "You could do that?" he asked. "You could make yourself better at sports?"
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 3, 2010 0:05:37 GMT -5
Alex leaned his head back a little; he hadn't thought about it seriously.
"In theory," he said slowly. "I don't know whether it would be worth it. I'm not very experienced, and my specialty is mental magic, or playing with light. Mostly, I was joking."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 3, 2010 0:19:41 GMT -5
"Shame," he sighed. "It would be nice to actually try something challenging."
He sank down against the cushions, letting his chin rest against his knees. "So what's it like, being a mage?" he asked quietly.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 3, 2010 0:31:44 GMT -5
"Hmm." Alex got half of a silly smirk on his face and couldn't quite wipe it off; Blaise looked like he'd suddenly lost about five years of age. He thought about the question for a moment.
"It's different," he replied. "I'm not sure how other people experience it, but for me it feels like a kind of... thing... with an extra consciousness. Not something aware or outside of me, I mean, but... a mirror, or...?" He shrugged sheepishly. "It's kind of hard to explain, I guess. What's it like being what you are?"
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Post by Blaise Park on May 3, 2010 0:46:13 GMT -5
Blaise extended one of his legs into the floor, leaning against the back of the sofa.
"Not half as interesting. I'm a shapeshifter. Most of the time it's not all that different, but a part of your mind is sort of stuck on animalistic instincts. It heightens your reflexes, but makes it harder to concentrate, at least for me. Maybe that's part of why I'm good at sports."
He considered mention his power to Alex, but he wasn't quite sure he was ready to share it with anyone yet. It was nice to have it to himself.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 3, 2010 0:49:23 GMT -5
"Sounds interesting to me; most of the shapeshifters around here seem to be. What do you change into?"
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Post by Blaise Park on May 3, 2010 1:07:25 GMT -5
Blaise hesitated. He wasn't entirely sure why he as so embarrassed of his form. There were probably other shapeshifters at Dunehelden who had worse animal forms than him, and he did like his shape in a way. It was quick and small, like Blaise himself, and everything seemed clearer and simpler when he was in his animal form. Still, when you told a person you were a ferret, it didn't get quite the same reaction as, say, a wolf.
"I can turn into a ferret," he said at last.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 3, 2010 1:09:46 GMT -5
Alex read Blaise's expression and leaned over onto the soft arm of the chair, pulling his feet up behind him to look less threatening. His hair spilled over the side.
"Afraid someone's going to call you cute?" he said mildly, smiling.
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Post by Blaise Park on May 3, 2010 1:33:36 GMT -5
"Oh, yeah." Blaise grinned. "Terrified." Sometimes he forgot how nice it was to be around happy people; the room smelled fresh, like eucalyptus leaves and mint.
"So how long have you been a mage?" he asked. "It is something that runs in your family?"
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 3, 2010 5:49:18 GMT -5
Alex shook with laughter and tossed his hair behind his back, leaning up on one elbow to look Blaise straight in the face.
"I guess I won't say it, then," he teased. "I've only been a mage since late September, as far as I can tell, and as far as I know it might- I wouldn't know. I don't even know who sent me here, except it was one of my parents' friends, and I can't really ask them."
"How long have you been able to turn into a ferret?"
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Post by Blaise Park on May 3, 2010 7:04:36 GMT -5
"Sometime around Halloween," he replied. "Last Boxing Day I ran into a Werewolf girl in Paris, and she suggested I come here. As far as my parents know, I'm in an upscale Canadian boarding school."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 3, 2010 7:10:23 GMT -5
"So we're both new at this. Have you gotten the hang of it yet? My first day I walked down the hallway and a giant wolfman exploded a wall; everything after that was easy."
Well, not quite, but it was a lot easier to swallow things like Hitoshi's eathquake and whatever had happened at the play after that.
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Post by Blaise Park on May 3, 2010 20:30:28 GMT -5
A scent flickered in the air, too quick for Blaise to catch it. He wondered what Alex had been thinking.
"Nothing like that's happened to me yet," he replied. "The weirdest thing I've seen is that troll that guards the library. "
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 3, 2010 21:17:09 GMT -5
"Oh, he's strange. Though I think some of the students are even stranger than him." Alex shrugged. "So... if you don't have anything better to do, want to watch a movie or something? You're fun."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 3, 2010 23:25:40 GMT -5
Blaise wondered if Alex made a habit of flirting with people despite having a boyfriend. His scent didn't change as drastically as Rhys', which made it difficult to tell Alex's intentions. He considered pushing Alex's boundaries, seeing just what he could get away with. A movie might let his guard down enough to see.
A slow smile spread over his face. "A movie could be fun."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 3, 2010 23:41:15 GMT -5
"Great!" Alex sat back up and slipped his feet back into his sandals. "What kind do you like? I think we have about everything here."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 4, 2010 1:02:44 GMT -5
"I think I have a few ideas," he replied. Blaise slipped off of the couch, still bare-footed, and began to browse through the cabinet near the television.
Most of the DVDs were releases from the early 2000s, anything from Disney movies to horror and action. There were were a surprising amount of super-hero movies, and most of them looked well watched. The X-Men DVDs had the most worn-looking covers of any of them, though Lord of the Rings wasn't far behind. There was the entire Pirates of the Caribbean series, the first two Harry Potter movies, a slew of comedies he'd never heard of, Kill Bill, several musicals, and about seven movies staring Lindsay Lohan back when people actually cared about her. Nothing seemed that recent, though it was possible that there were recent movies elsewhere in the castle.
A few of the lower shelves, however, were filled with VHS tapes. While Blaise wasn't a fan of the lower quality -- not to mention the inability to skip scenes -- the tapes looked far more interesting. There were several old romantic comedies, foreign films, classics like Gone with the Wind (unfortunately that might run a bit long for them)... Blaise had been about to grab My Fair Lady when he noticed one of the cases seemed to be jammed in between Titanic and the door. He pulled one of the movies from the case, then shifted them all to the left. When he saw what movie was wedged between them, he grinned.
Blaise stuck the other movies back into the cabinet, then rolled back onto his feet. "I hope you don't mind Shakespeare," he said. Blaise popped the movie into the VCR and turned on the television.
He plopped back on the couch and leaned against the arm rest. "You can probably see better from here. The chair is sort of angled away from the t.v."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 4, 2010 1:25:52 GMT -5
"Shakespeare? No," Alex said curiously. He got up and headed over to the couch. "Which one is this, another version of Midsummer?"
When the preliminary bits had passed and the movie itself started, his eyes brightened. "Ooh. Is this the old one or the one with the guy from The Aviator?"
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Post by Blaise Park on May 4, 2010 2:03:11 GMT -5
"It's the Leonardo DiCaprio version. It's got its flaws, but the visuals are really good," he explained. "You just have to sort of take a step outside it and watch the story while hearing the play and not try to force them to sync up perfectly. It's one of the flaws with modernizing Shakespeare."
He shifted so that he was just a bit closer to the other boy and folded his legs beside him on the cushion. He mouthed along with the opening monologue, not missing a beat: Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene...
"I know a lot of Shakespeare fans don't like Romeo and Juliet for various reasons, but it's my favorite. I like the others, but it's more poignant than Hamlet or Macbeth in a lot of ways, and it's a lot easier to relate to for most people. There's a reason it's his most well-known play." He smirked at Alex.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 4, 2010 2:37:34 GMT -5
Alex pulled one leg up to his chest and lay his head on his knee; he glanced over at Blaise and nearly laughed to see him mouthing the words.
"I'm not the biggest fan of Shakespeare. I... kind of think he's overdone, but I like this play. It's cute, even if it is a tragedy," he said softly, trying not to talk over the movie too much. "And to be honest, I like romance and drama."
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