5 Ashan, 724
.
The air held a sweet aroma that only came with the abrupt change in temperature. The few remaining dead leaves swirled in the backdrop of distance where they caught currents that made them near equal resemblance of someone performing a cultural dance. It was warming up. The enormous piles of ice were gradually melting and washing away the residual shadows of what once had been temporary decay. Kotton threw his arms up over his head and stretched. He emitted a groan as a crack resounded throughout his lower back.
It was unfortunate that these abiding moments would be the last of all natural warmth before heading indoors for a lengthy amount of time. He needed to spend more time outside of class. Furthermore, he needed to expend the energy it took to be in nature and use that time as his own personal study time. He held this hypothesis that the scent of grass and dew, the scenery of rising stems and blooming blossoms would encourage him to brush up on the few scientific-related topics he had been struggling to comprehend.
Walking through the wooden doors into the university cast a strange sensation of Deja vu. The stairs creaked uncomfortably beneath his weight, giving him the impression that they had been here for many, many years, now recently rotting with age. Once he hit the bottom step and opened the first door on the left, a new feeling evaded him and his sense of comfort.
No one was here; he was entirely alone here. He found the correct room for the after class study session, didn't he? Disappointment shortly settled into his heart before he instinctively began to analyse the room's contents in respect to the memory he had of a study session. Perhaps he had misremembered the time or the day? He was probably either too early or too late, what with his natural dis-inclination to sense time. He had never thought to follow-up with his instructor as to the days of the week such a study session was being held.
As his mind wandered so it seemed did another's. It was as if his doubtful thoughts were pulled from his own brain and assed by someone else as a shadow stepped into his line of view. The caliginous silhouette had a mask that covered everything but the mouth.
Startled, Kotton drew back into the open door into the hallway. He nearly tripped on the stairs he had just descended. Strangely, the figure stuck out a hand to steady his balance. It could still not be recognize any details as to the figure's identity- gender, race, intent- no matter whether they had just assisted him from falling, Kotton kept his guard up. Whilst the figure had obviously shown traits reflective of friend rather than a foe, the eeriness was still a monumental factor in his decision whether to trust or not, and it was becoming more and more uncomfortable for him the longer he stared.
"What do you seek?" asked the silhouette with a deep voice that emerged from the very depths of their throat. The deaf man squinted his eyes with apprehensive concentration as he grasped hold of the individual's words. He wasn’t sure he had read their lips correctly, but it seemed like his being there had been called into question. The young man was about to reply to the stranger who still remained shrouded in complete darkness when yet another one manifested behind them. Blessedly, they were not decked head to toe in black attire. But they still insisted in the refusal of speaking.
“I’m hewe to... study?” Kotton finally answered, though his words sounded more like a question than a statement. He continued to feel uncomfortable, if not a little frightened, but there were no unnecessary large gulps of air, no shakes or tremors of anxiety, and definitely no stutters or sweaty palms.
"And is this enlightenment for educational purposes or for self-worth?”
These questions thrown at him were more difficult to answer than the half-blood had ever imagined and he hadn't imagined answering any questions at all! What was he- being scanned for any signs of malcontent? Immediately after he had wet his lips with his tongue and cleared his throat and at last opened his mouth to respond, the individual who had joined the conversation only moments ago raised their hand and slapped it against the original shadowed figure’s closest shoulder.
“Enough with that, Tais. Let the young man be.”
Suddenly, the cloaked figure removed their mask only to display feminine hazel eyes. Although, there was some confusion on Kotton’s part as he observed a strong jawline and thin mustache he should have picked up from his time spent reading their mouth.
“Wait-wha-”
“Welcome to the after school study club, my friend. My name is Ender and this here is my dramatic friend, Tais.” The one who went by Ender became much easier to look at now that he had stepped out from behind an unlit portion of the room. He removed his jacket hood and held out his hand, to which Kotton took distrustfully.
“All jokes aside,” Ender consoled. “We’re glad to have you here. Did you bring your school stuff?”
Kotton had almost forgotten the knapsack that had been draped across his backside. He pulled it to the front and began to pull from its storage a notebook and pen.
“Great! This way please."
Kotton’s mind was still trying to process the step-by-step process as to how things turned into what they were. But whilst this collection of intelligent thought and logical buffered, he managed to will his legs into following both these individuals known as Tais and Ender. They rounded a corner, a wall that was practically invisible from the point of view from having just entered the room- that was crafty. There were several desks lined up with more than a few individuals sitting in front of them. So this was where everyone was.
There was an empty desk, he noticed, next to someone who seemed to have a familiar expression. It only took a few seconds before Kotton recognized that the man holding such an exaggerated grin was none other than Elio. He was a student in the same class as Kotton, and they had met once before at the Scholar’s Nook to trade notes after a particularly challenging class.
“I’m so glad you chose to take up Mr. Misrissour’s offer to attend an after school study group," he vocalised with eyebrows animatedly skyward. "I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of it just as I have,” he chirped, scooting his chair closer so that its legs were nearly intertwined with Kotton’s.
The deaf man nodded his head with instinctive politeness and forced a half-smile. He needed to stop thinking about the greeting he had just received, and all its absolute ridiculous, and focus on the things that mattered. He was here to study, so study he shall. That being said, he wasted no additional time dwelling and pivoted to the opening of his notebook and to that of the last page he had written.
“I’m having a little twouble defining the states of mattew,” he admitted. The last session of his science course had invited new terminology and it was terminology foreign to him. His teacher had done a decent job explaining the terms, but his brain still insisted on muddling the words half way through. His concentration was directed more towards trying to read lips than the understanding of the words that left them.
“Sure, sure,” Elio purred. “You know the basic states of matter, right? At least in the non-magical sense? I see it in your notes. Solid, liquid, gaseous. Or so my brother tells me and he has a certificate in science so...
Kotton bit his tongue. This was more information than he had thought he had missed. He was surely glad that Elio was a good guy, even if the backstory was a bit excessive.
Thankfully, Elio didn’t have to pick up on his passive aggressive disinterest before continuing with his guidance. “A solid state is usually something hard and can't be easily changed via normal physical methods. Liquids are just as they sound- they go with the flow. And gases are just a free for all of stuff you can't see but you know are there like my great-great aunt Delilah. I swear even to this day I feel her behind me with a spoonful of peas trying to get me to eat them.”
Kotton’s narrowed eyes suggested no deterrent for such an energetic friend who was inherently stuffed full of the semi-desperate desire to teach. “Yea, okay.”
The young medic raised his finger, a sign that meant he shouldn’t be distracted. He spent a copious amount of time expanding upon the definitions he had already opined in his journal. He made squiggles, underlined a few things, and by the immortals, he wished he had something that gave him the capability to highlight important factoids. He would have to physically bolden words more than once instead, but he felt complete after he did so.
Once he had finished, Kotton lowered his finger and raised his eyes back up to Elio’s, but not without first administering a gratuitous smile in response to his helpful information. Elio's tiffany blue eyes shimmered with pride as he looked his friend up and down. He returned the expression Kotton had given him with one of his own. It was so bright, so lustrous, so authentic that Kotton started to feel bad. He didn't feel the same about Elio as Elio felt about him. Elio was just another student, like someone was a coworker. He wasn't using him, per se, but there was no additional emotion aside from the desperation that accumulated due to his need to clarify points of the lecture that felt foreign to him.
He shook his head and closed his eyes and pinched himself by way of punishment for his rational, yet not socially acceptable action to request additional information. “And states of mattew change with tempewature?”
“Yes! Depending on…”
“...what the thing is made of.”
“For example…”
“Ice is a solid. With heat it tuwns into a liquid and with even mowe heat it eventually tuwns into a gas.”
“Righto, Mr K.”
Had Kotton read that right? Perhaps his relationship with Elio had advanced farther than he thought. Maybe there was more to it than simple confirmation. It was nice to have someone on his side, that much couldn’t be argued against, but there still stewed doubt. Kotton didn't want to be a person who used someone. He didn't want to be someone who relied on another for answers to a test. But he couldn't find that additional chord, that additional angle of feeling that converted associate into friend. At the moment, it wasn’t important. For now, his need to understand the course was more important to him than maintaining comradeship.
“One last thing,” Kotton started after having taken a cursory glance over his notes. “Pwopewties of matter. I know we bawely touched it duwing the last session, but…”
“I hear you man. I’m having the hardest time figuring out what Mr Misrissour’s angle was when he brought it up. Maybe he’ll explain more next session.”
“But-”
“Intensive physical property versus extensive physical property? I was only able to jot down the list he wrote on the chalkboard. Here,” Elio pushed his own notebook closer so that Kotton was able to read what it entailed. Most of what had been written were notes he, too, had taken, all except for a few bullet points. Kotton made sure to add those points to his own list.
He had labelled a column in his notebook that contained the following terms: colour, melting point, boiling point, density. Next to that column was another and it contained additional, separate terms: mass, volume, length, shape. It seemed that some terms were dependent on how much of a particular object there was whilst others did not. This was all without taking magic into consideration, since being an initiate of Glamour, properties and what have you could easily blur the lines.
“Hopefully we’ll go ovew this during the next class,” Kotton stated, wishful in thinking.
“I’m sure we will. That, or it will just be a precursor toward the next class. Who knows?”
Kotton watched as Elio’s attention was siphoned by the exhibition of a distracting masterpiece solicited by the front of the room. Apparently, it seemed the study session had met its end. Kotton was just too deaf to realise it.
“Thanks for coming, Kotton,” Elio declared, thrusting his hand toward the young man with the intention of being shook.
Kotton met his hand halfway and shook generously. “I’m glad I came.”
“See you at the next one?”
There was a smile and a nod before a departure from the both.
It was unfortunate that these abiding moments would be the last of all natural warmth before heading indoors for a lengthy amount of time. He needed to spend more time outside of class. Furthermore, he needed to expend the energy it took to be in nature and use that time as his own personal study time. He held this hypothesis that the scent of grass and dew, the scenery of rising stems and blooming blossoms would encourage him to brush up on the few scientific-related topics he had been struggling to comprehend.
Walking through the wooden doors into the university cast a strange sensation of Deja vu. The stairs creaked uncomfortably beneath his weight, giving him the impression that they had been here for many, many years, now recently rotting with age. Once he hit the bottom step and opened the first door on the left, a new feeling evaded him and his sense of comfort.
No one was here; he was entirely alone here. He found the correct room for the after class study session, didn't he? Disappointment shortly settled into his heart before he instinctively began to analyse the room's contents in respect to the memory he had of a study session. Perhaps he had misremembered the time or the day? He was probably either too early or too late, what with his natural dis-inclination to sense time. He had never thought to follow-up with his instructor as to the days of the week such a study session was being held.
As his mind wandered so it seemed did another's. It was as if his doubtful thoughts were pulled from his own brain and assed by someone else as a shadow stepped into his line of view. The caliginous silhouette had a mask that covered everything but the mouth.
Startled, Kotton drew back into the open door into the hallway. He nearly tripped on the stairs he had just descended. Strangely, the figure stuck out a hand to steady his balance. It could still not be recognize any details as to the figure's identity- gender, race, intent- no matter whether they had just assisted him from falling, Kotton kept his guard up. Whilst the figure had obviously shown traits reflective of friend rather than a foe, the eeriness was still a monumental factor in his decision whether to trust or not, and it was becoming more and more uncomfortable for him the longer he stared.
"What do you seek?" asked the silhouette with a deep voice that emerged from the very depths of their throat. The deaf man squinted his eyes with apprehensive concentration as he grasped hold of the individual's words. He wasn’t sure he had read their lips correctly, but it seemed like his being there had been called into question. The young man was about to reply to the stranger who still remained shrouded in complete darkness when yet another one manifested behind them. Blessedly, they were not decked head to toe in black attire. But they still insisted in the refusal of speaking.
“I’m hewe to... study?” Kotton finally answered, though his words sounded more like a question than a statement. He continued to feel uncomfortable, if not a little frightened, but there were no unnecessary large gulps of air, no shakes or tremors of anxiety, and definitely no stutters or sweaty palms.
"And is this enlightenment for educational purposes or for self-worth?”
These questions thrown at him were more difficult to answer than the half-blood had ever imagined and he hadn't imagined answering any questions at all! What was he- being scanned for any signs of malcontent? Immediately after he had wet his lips with his tongue and cleared his throat and at last opened his mouth to respond, the individual who had joined the conversation only moments ago raised their hand and slapped it against the original shadowed figure’s closest shoulder.
“Enough with that, Tais. Let the young man be.”
Suddenly, the cloaked figure removed their mask only to display feminine hazel eyes. Although, there was some confusion on Kotton’s part as he observed a strong jawline and thin mustache he should have picked up from his time spent reading their mouth.
“Wait-wha-”
“Welcome to the after school study club, my friend. My name is Ender and this here is my dramatic friend, Tais.” The one who went by Ender became much easier to look at now that he had stepped out from behind an unlit portion of the room. He removed his jacket hood and held out his hand, to which Kotton took distrustfully.
“All jokes aside,” Ender consoled. “We’re glad to have you here. Did you bring your school stuff?”
Kotton had almost forgotten the knapsack that had been draped across his backside. He pulled it to the front and began to pull from its storage a notebook and pen.
“Great! This way please."
Kotton’s mind was still trying to process the step-by-step process as to how things turned into what they were. But whilst this collection of intelligent thought and logical buffered, he managed to will his legs into following both these individuals known as Tais and Ender. They rounded a corner, a wall that was practically invisible from the point of view from having just entered the room- that was crafty. There were several desks lined up with more than a few individuals sitting in front of them. So this was where everyone was.
There was an empty desk, he noticed, next to someone who seemed to have a familiar expression. It only took a few seconds before Kotton recognized that the man holding such an exaggerated grin was none other than Elio. He was a student in the same class as Kotton, and they had met once before at the Scholar’s Nook to trade notes after a particularly challenging class.
“I’m so glad you chose to take up Mr. Misrissour’s offer to attend an after school study group," he vocalised with eyebrows animatedly skyward. "I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of it just as I have,” he chirped, scooting his chair closer so that its legs were nearly intertwined with Kotton’s.
The deaf man nodded his head with instinctive politeness and forced a half-smile. He needed to stop thinking about the greeting he had just received, and all its absolute ridiculous, and focus on the things that mattered. He was here to study, so study he shall. That being said, he wasted no additional time dwelling and pivoted to the opening of his notebook and to that of the last page he had written.
“I’m having a little twouble defining the states of mattew,” he admitted. The last session of his science course had invited new terminology and it was terminology foreign to him. His teacher had done a decent job explaining the terms, but his brain still insisted on muddling the words half way through. His concentration was directed more towards trying to read lips than the understanding of the words that left them.
“Sure, sure,” Elio purred. “You know the basic states of matter, right? At least in the non-magical sense? I see it in your notes. Solid, liquid, gaseous. Or so my brother tells me and he has a certificate in science so...
Kotton bit his tongue. This was more information than he had thought he had missed. He was surely glad that Elio was a good guy, even if the backstory was a bit excessive.
Thankfully, Elio didn’t have to pick up on his passive aggressive disinterest before continuing with his guidance. “A solid state is usually something hard and can't be easily changed via normal physical methods. Liquids are just as they sound- they go with the flow. And gases are just a free for all of stuff you can't see but you know are there like my great-great aunt Delilah. I swear even to this day I feel her behind me with a spoonful of peas trying to get me to eat them.”
Kotton’s narrowed eyes suggested no deterrent for such an energetic friend who was inherently stuffed full of the semi-desperate desire to teach. “Yea, okay.”
The young medic raised his finger, a sign that meant he shouldn’t be distracted. He spent a copious amount of time expanding upon the definitions he had already opined in his journal. He made squiggles, underlined a few things, and by the immortals, he wished he had something that gave him the capability to highlight important factoids. He would have to physically bolden words more than once instead, but he felt complete after he did so.
Once he had finished, Kotton lowered his finger and raised his eyes back up to Elio’s, but not without first administering a gratuitous smile in response to his helpful information. Elio's tiffany blue eyes shimmered with pride as he looked his friend up and down. He returned the expression Kotton had given him with one of his own. It was so bright, so lustrous, so authentic that Kotton started to feel bad. He didn't feel the same about Elio as Elio felt about him. Elio was just another student, like someone was a coworker. He wasn't using him, per se, but there was no additional emotion aside from the desperation that accumulated due to his need to clarify points of the lecture that felt foreign to him.
He shook his head and closed his eyes and pinched himself by way of punishment for his rational, yet not socially acceptable action to request additional information. “And states of mattew change with tempewature?”
“Yes! Depending on…”
“...what the thing is made of.”
“For example…”
“Ice is a solid. With heat it tuwns into a liquid and with even mowe heat it eventually tuwns into a gas.”
“Righto, Mr K.”
Had Kotton read that right? Perhaps his relationship with Elio had advanced farther than he thought. Maybe there was more to it than simple confirmation. It was nice to have someone on his side, that much couldn’t be argued against, but there still stewed doubt. Kotton didn't want to be a person who used someone. He didn't want to be someone who relied on another for answers to a test. But he couldn't find that additional chord, that additional angle of feeling that converted associate into friend. At the moment, it wasn’t important. For now, his need to understand the course was more important to him than maintaining comradeship.
“One last thing,” Kotton started after having taken a cursory glance over his notes. “Pwopewties of matter. I know we bawely touched it duwing the last session, but…”
“I hear you man. I’m having the hardest time figuring out what Mr Misrissour’s angle was when he brought it up. Maybe he’ll explain more next session.”
“But-”
“Intensive physical property versus extensive physical property? I was only able to jot down the list he wrote on the chalkboard. Here,” Elio pushed his own notebook closer so that Kotton was able to read what it entailed. Most of what had been written were notes he, too, had taken, all except for a few bullet points. Kotton made sure to add those points to his own list.
He had labelled a column in his notebook that contained the following terms: colour, melting point, boiling point, density. Next to that column was another and it contained additional, separate terms: mass, volume, length, shape. It seemed that some terms were dependent on how much of a particular object there was whilst others did not. This was all without taking magic into consideration, since being an initiate of Glamour, properties and what have you could easily blur the lines.
“Hopefully we’ll go ovew this during the next class,” Kotton stated, wishful in thinking.
“I’m sure we will. That, or it will just be a precursor toward the next class. Who knows?”
Kotton watched as Elio’s attention was siphoned by the exhibition of a distracting masterpiece solicited by the front of the room. Apparently, it seemed the study session had met its end. Kotton was just too deaf to realise it.
“Thanks for coming, Kotton,” Elio declared, thrusting his hand toward the young man with the intention of being shook.
Kotton met his hand halfway and shook generously. “I’m glad I came.”
“See you at the next one?”
There was a smile and a nod before a departure from the both.
