○ events occur. aka: filler content :) ◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜ / february 4, 2131 / things had grown strange between avior and destiny. he was kind of okay with that. girls were weird, anyway. whatever. it was fine. "hey, idiot," marcus said when avior entered tertius amidst a freezing gust of the mid-winter air. "mr. finch wants to talk to you," splendid. avior had been avoiding fred finch for nearly all of winter session. there was no point in seeing him. he was probably still very angry with avior about the rooster thing. maybe avior had gotten himself kicked out of xiphoid. it was a silly thought, but it wrapped itself around his mind as he trudged along the path to the main office, and by the time he got there he was dead convinced that he was about to get chucked out. he was surprised at how disappointing the idea of leaving camp was. he was surprised that he wanted to stay. with a great, resigned sigh, he swung open the door to the main office and dragged his feet along the floor the whole way to fred finch's office. "ah, yes! hello!" fred finch exclaimed, standing and knocking over the mug of pens sat on his desk. "hullo," avior said quietly. "do you know why i called you into my office?" "s'pose it's because 'm in trouble," avior mumbled, staring sullenly down at his shoes. "wha? no, not at all! not at all! in fact, we have news for you!" "hello," caryn said, and it was only then that avior noticed she had been standing beside fred finch the entire time. she pushed her square glasses up her nose and folded her arms. "i'm certain you remember an *incident*, so to speak, involving a gargantuan metal rooster?" avior nodded. "after close examination—" caryn glanced at fred finch, who gave a thumbs-up— "we have determined that the rooster was of, well, of demonic origin," "huh," avior said. "okay. what about it?" "that's about it. we wanted you to be aware of the fact that the rooster was designed and created by a demon, and seems to have been specifically targeting our campers," "why would it do that?" "we have our theories." "what are they?" "that's classified information," "okay," ⋘◦⋙ / february 12, 2131 / life at xiphoid had, most unfortunately, become a dull repetitive endless line of unremarkable day after unremarkable day marching ceaselessly forward and forward, on and on. the one disruption to this sickeningly dull rhythm was, most unfortunately, valentine's day. the camp was abuzz with romance. there were more couples than ever, more gossip and more giggling, and rosemarie's classroom was adorned with the brightest pinks and reds. avior hated it, all of it. christmas was terrible, but this stupid, made-up, insufferably cheesy holiday was even worse. he wished everyone saw the world through his point of view. romance was stupid. what was the point of girls, anyway? blah blah blah. love love love. how boring. how stupid. he had voiced this opinion to arin thousands of times, and thankfully, ae was in full agreement. valentine's day was stupid. full stop. destiny had begun speaking to avior again, which he was quite happy about. rosemarie's class was dreadfully boring with no one to talk to. maybe he would enjoy xiphoid camp more next year, when he had cracked the mystery of scants, and discovered magic (assuming that it was indeed real. which it definitely wasn't), and saved marcus from certain demonic doom and whispering in his ear "you owe me. never forget about this, marcus gill. you will not rest until you have fulfilled your debt to me", thus capturing his mortal enemy in the palm of his hand. a glorious future lay in store for him. he simply had to discuss a few technicalities with the only demon he knew. which was why he had snuck off to the forest after rosemarie mercifully dismissed his class, and traversed the barren, chilly trails till he crossed the stone bridge above the icy river, and leapt up the worn steps three at a time, and knocked upon the door of the mansion only to find that, apparently, nobody was home. it was quite lonely outside of the mansion. he was really getting tired of sitting outside of doors in the freezing cold. that seemed to happen to him entirely too often. perhaps he should return to camp. yeah, he could always visit alfonso another time. he stood, gave the door a good kick, shook the snow out of his hair, and turned to leave. "why, if you wanted to come inside, you need only knock," alfonso said from the doorway. avior stopped in his tracks. "mother—" he began. "now, now, is that kind of language really necessary?" alfonso cut him off. "come in, come in. it's nice and warm in here, as one would expect. i've just returned from the bottom of heck," "that's not a real place. you're thinking of hell." avior brushed past alfonso and entered the mansion, only to be greeted by a completely different interior than before.
rather than the high ceiling of the original intimidating entryway, there was now only the room with the high-backed scarlet chairs (had they always been scarlet?) and the crackling fireplace and the little table with the kettle and teacups. "i— wha— this isn't—" avior stammered. "oh, yes. i've done some light redecorating," alfonso said airily. bah! demon magic again! alfonso crossed the room in mere steps and settled into one of the scarlet armchairs. "why don't you brew us some tea?" he said, nodding towards the little kettle that sat alone on its rickety table. well, what else was there to do? surprisingly enough, it wasn't very difficult to remember what alfonso had taught him months ago, and in no time at all, there were two scalding hot cups of tea on the tall, round table beside alfonso's armchair. "you've a bit of snow in your hair," alfonso remarked. "yeah, it's a stylistic choice. too bad it melts so quickly, i think i look quite fashionable this way," avior deadpanned. "what brings you to my humble little manor?" "oh, nothing much, just thought i'd walk two hours in the dead cold to have a nice fireside chat with my good buddy, the demon who's going to tell me EVERYTHING that i want to know and leave NOTHING out," "my, my, such intensity! very well then, ask away," "what evil scheme have you been planning?" "why, no scheme at all! i'm retired!" "come on, you and i both know that's a heap of lies. did you hear about the GIANT METAL ROOSTER?" "certainly not!" alfonso said, though his beady red eyes flashed dangerously behind his golden spectacles. "i KNOW you had something to do with it!" a thunderous creaking of floorboards sounded from above. alfonso looked downright terrified now. "shh!" he hissed. "lower your voice! please!" avior went silent at once, sparing the ceiling a nervous glance before returning his attention to the demon before him. the creaking subsided, and alfonso appeared to relax slightly, sinking back into his armchair and sipping his tea. "i cannot," he began, "tell you very much about what goes on in the secret workings of our demonic world. i can, however, tell you that we truly are just differently-shaped people, who are capable of magic greater than anything you could begin to fathom, and that is all." alfonso gestured to the door. "now, then. i am out of tea, and if you stay here any longer you will be missed. time to go!" avior stood to leave, and it was only then that he realized his teacup had disappeared. he stared at his empty hands for a moment, bemused. demon magic again! he opened the door, fully expecting to be met by a blast of cold wind and snow, but instead found himself standing in a dim hallway with a soft glow coming from somewhere near him, and he felt a small weight in his hand and looked down and he was holding a candle that was not there before, and the carpet was slightly damp and it squelched under his feet, and then alfonso laughed in his ear, a terrible rasping sound indeed, and the hallway dissolved and xiphoid camp rematerialized around him and even though it was cold and there was snow up to his knees he did not move and instead stood there, face pale and eyes wide because he was still holding the candle and a moment later the little teacup fell in the snow and did not sink but shattered. and he dropped the candle and left the shards of teacup where they were and went back to his cabin because it was just demon magic, anyway. the only person who might be in danger from it was marcus, and who cared about that guy, anyway?
