Old memories, and a new start (open)

[Xenarius]

This is going to be difficult. Xenarius thought as he walked into Hircine. Difficult because his whole arm was in a straight cast for the next month or so after the surgery he had three days ago. It had been stupid. He knew Kyu was a good fighter, hell he knew kyu was a great fighter. So what could have possibly possessed him to think that kyu would be surprised that he took to the offensive was beyond him at this point. Stupid errors, thats really all it is.

Xenarius walked to his locker and opened it up. It had been a long time since he had been in this locker. Somehow his dad was able to make it so he would stay a student here while he was away, and he was grateful. Inside were pictures, and magazine clippings, and quotes, and textbooks of classes, showing what was important to him when the "shit hit the fan". There were many quotes written on pieces of paper taped in various places in the locker, but one in particular always seemed to speak to the very core of Xenarius. It was how he tried to live his life. The quote hit home as it always did when he saw it this time, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -by Edmund Burke. I'm trying... but there seems to be more and more evil these days though, and less and less people fighting it.

Grabbing the books one at a time he put them in his backpack. He had to return them to the office so they could go where they needed to go. Walking slowly down the corridors to the office. He dropped the books off quickly and they gave him his schedule for the year. Being a senior seemed to have its perks... especially since he got to finish his classes from last semester on the base his family was living on, and the grades counted here. He had first period off this semester.

So he wandered around for a little while before settling on a bench to relax for the little bit of time he had before he needed to go back to classes, and rejoin the student community.

[John Smith]

Sure seems a lot spacier since Paragon opened... Argh damnit, stupid cards.

John Smith leaned forward and picked up a few of the cards that had slipped from his hands. While leaning down he noticed a fresh wound on his right hand. He put his left hand over it and saw that it matched his own nails. Freaked out a bit he dropped the rest of the cards on the ground. After a short while he snapped out of it and picked up his cards as a chill ran down his spine. He needed to sit down. He looked around and saw a bench. It was still free- awh damn, someone just sat down. Oh well. Interacting with strangers wasn't the worst thing in the world. As a matter of fact, it was one of the best things. Plus, he sort of recognized the fellow. He had seen him in the school and at some classes. He was a senior. That was also everything John knew about him.

He got up from his crouched position, his mind in confusion at the self inflicted wound on his hand. It wasn't very obvious, but still, why had he done it? And more importantly, when?

"Hey, do you mind if I sit here?" [OOC: Assuming you say yes here, if not. Well, ignore my post /OOC] John sat down next to him and exhaled the air in his chest. Sounding exhausted after the walk around. He looked over at the guy next to him and spoke softly. "Thanks man, my leg is killing me today." First then he noticed the guy's arm was in a cast. John wasn't very observant. "Damn man, what the hell happened to you?" He was very loud at times as well. Bear with him, it was one of the few days where he wasn't one pain killers because of his leg so he was thinking unnaturally sharp today and wasn't tired at all.

[Xenarius]

Xenarius opened his eyes, and looked over at the man who had sat down next to him. The guy looked to be about his age, and seemed friendly enough. Noticing a few of the scars on the guy's body Xenarius realized that either this guy was quite the fighter, or something extremely bad had happened to him in the past.

"I fell off my bike," Xenarius lied with a wry smile. "It was... exciting to say the least." Xenarius scooted over a little bit to give the guy some room of his own. "I'm Xenarius." He said moving his hand out in a friendly gesture.

(ooc: Sorry about shortness... I'm terrible with introduction posts)

[John Smith]

[OOC: It's okay.]

"Fell off a bike...? Ouch dude. I know the feeling, never been as bad off as you though."

His mind had moved on from the disturbing thoughts of his self mutilation, now he was in the position of socializing. He knew no one at this school, only few stragglers who now where at Paragon. It was a fresh start, sort of. He couldn't see through the lie of Xenarius', he believed that people wouldn't lie about trivial matters like a broken arm. What would John do? Go into a frenzy.

"I'm John, John Smith."

He winked to the boy in a friendly manor. He wouldn't shake hands with the boy out of a personal reason called: He had a wound on his hand and it might hurt if someone grabbed it and shook it. He took a card. It was a joker. And with a flick of his wrist the card flew through the air and hit a tree where it bounced harmlessly off and landed on the ground.

No pain... Good... My hand is fine.

"Heh, sorry about that. Wanna see a card trick?"

Well, whether he wanted or not, John would perform the trick. It was rather simple. He would take 3 cards from the deck. They had been tampered with from the beginning. There were a word written on each of the cards. The trick was that they would always lie on top of each other, and you would even only get to see 2 of the cards, but believe that you had seen all three. It went flawlessly and he would be impressed if Xenarius could see through the trick.

"Well, that's life for you, sometimes you get something of 'this'" He flipped a card and threw it down on the free bench between them, and across the card was written with black letters: this. "You also get something of 'that'" Another card was thrown down and it had that written across the card. But the beauty of the trick came here. "But you also get something 'else'." And he threw down the third card that Xenarius wouldn't have seen yet. And yes, it would have the word 'else' written on it. John grinned and waited for some sort of reaction from Xenarius.

"Oh, and this is a good trick to score chicks with."

[Xenarius]

"Sure." Xenarius said in response to the question about a card trick. He immediately concentrated on the deck of cards watching John's every move. hmmm... this is a good trick. There are three cards, but is he only showing me two of them at any time? Xenarius thought to himself as he watched the trick. It is very much a slight of hand trick, thats for sure... I'm just not sure where the trick comes in.

"Somethin' else huh?" Xenarius would say with a grin. "Thats a pretty good trick. You'll have to teach it to me sometime." Xenarius would say to John shaking his head slightly. "I'll bet its good for picking up chicks, but I bet it takes a lot of practice to do it so flawlessly."

"So are you new here John? I don't think I've seen you around before." Xenarius would say to John turning to face him better. "A few things I can definitely promise is that you will never be bored at this school, and you'll very likely never have to look for trouble... it finds you pretty well on its own."

[John Smith]

"Heh, it just requires nimble fingers and then it is easy to do. Sort of. I was lucky this time, normally it doesn't go this well."

He said with a smile. It was a long time since he had sat down and had a chat with anyone who were genuinely interested instead of trying to find a way to get away from the friendly behemoth. He was a tad too weird for most of them. Luckily this was a new place and he hadn't really gotten to know it yet.

"Yeah, started here this year so I am still trying to get to know it. And well, I'm not one to go look for trouble and I hope it won't find me. And in case it does, a small card trick might make it go away." He said with a confident grin. He didn't believe his card tricks could get him out of trouble.

"So, how about you? Long time student here or did you come here with Varron? I remember it was all over the news."

[Xenarius]

"I came with Varron. Well slightly after Varron anyway. See police started conducting raids of places that had large amounts of teens for people they suspected to be a part of everything that happened. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and looked like the wrong guy and got arrested. I was in jail for a month before my identity was proven in all the craziness that was going on over there. They released me because my identity was proven... and because I accepted the "invitation" to attend Hircine High." Xenarius explained.

He wasn't sure why he was so open with John about his life before Hircine. Not many others here knew about what had happened. In fact Xenarius could count the number of people on one hand. But for some reason he could tell that John wasn't a malicious person. He could innately sense that John wouldn't be one to use the information against him in anyway. "Anyway. They told me it would be different here. The people would be nicer, the school more understanding, and forgiving. But so far thats a bunch of bull. After a few months here though, my father pulled me out again. I live with my aunt in the city, but my family is a military family, and my parents wanted me to have a "normal" life. So I lived with them again for about six months and then got shipped back here. Apparently I missed a lot in my time away. I sure wish I could have been here to see the overthrow of that principal of ours, and the pillars that came with him."

"So yeah... thats probably more than you ever needed to know about me..." Xenarius said with a wink. Hoping that John wouldn't be scared away by his past.