○ we experience a new point of view. ◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜ / april 14, 2131 - arin tagenet / Arin Tagenet was not a lonely person. That was what a lot of people assumed at first. Understandably so. But no, Arin was not at all lonely. Not one bit. It wasn't like ae was one of those loners, those really antisocial people who sat alone and were always reading and stuff. Ae had friends, for crying out loud! Well. Ae had Avior. And Avior wasn't exactly the best friend to have, certainly not the sort you'd want your parents to meet. Lucky, then, that Arin didn't have to worry about aer parents disliking aer one and only friend from camp. Can't meet someone if you have no idea where they go between the months that Xiphoid is in session. That was an unhappy topic. Moving on. There were many upsides to living with one's grandparents. Dorothy and Gary Tagenet were nice people, kind people, incredibly lenient when it came to just about everything. It was the siblings who were the one downside. Arin was the oldest of five, and ae loved aer siblings dearly (would kill for them, if necessary), but there was something about them that Arin had never quite fit into. You had Bobbi and Willa, and then you had Garrett and Wilbur, and they paired off neatly into the two older girls and the two younger boys, leaving Arin, who was neither one nor the other, on the outside. And, well, it was *lonely*. Oh. Loneliness again. Arin got on fine with aer cabinmates at Xiphoid, but the people of Nonus all kept to themselves a bit. None of them liked each other, none of them were friendly with one another, and that was just how it was. That was the thing about Avior. As bad of an influence as he was, he was new, and he was unfriendly, and that put him at an even lower status than Arin. But in the end, there was no cosmic joke or twist of fate that led to them befriending each other: Arin had seen the achingly familiar sight of someone sitting alone in the dining hall and made an easy decision. But now *he* was doing fine, had started to become a little more than friendly with Destiny Coffey, and it would be another four months before Arin could talk to him again. Maybe he had stayed in touch with the other boys in Tertius, and by the time Xiphoid started again he would have other, cooler friends and want nothing to do with Arin. That was a nasty thought. No more nasty thoughts. There were plenty of nice things to think about. Like cats. Or warm blankets. Or Marcus Gill from Tertius being carried out of the school and to the infirmary by two wide-eyed and pale Junior Counselors, Mr. Finch in the background panicking and waving his arms about while yelling into his walkie-talkie, Avior still and silent at his side. Arin never did find out what happened that day, and not for lack of trying. Hardly anyone knew what took place in the library on February twenty-fourth. There were theories, of course. You could hardly go ten steps without hearing another person speculating about what had happened. "I heard they tried to kill each other," Cassius Pacheco from Primus theorized. "I heard they got attacked by a WEREWOLF!" Little ten-year-old Jaspal Downes from Septimus speculated. "Do you think they're both all right?" Destiny Coffey asked Arin constantly. "Could it be true?" Everyone asked everyone who would listen. "Tetius is cursed, I swear. Wait till you hear what happened to this other guy..." Glen Moran in Nonus said one evening. The rumors never ended. Everywhere Arin went ae was confronted with another person who swore that they and they alone knew the truth. It was annoying. Arin disliked gossip. Ae simply did not see the need for it. How unnecessary, to spread rumors about another person, to get needlessly tangled up in something that did not affect you at all! Ae felt bad for Marcus Gill, though ae had only spoken to him a few times. And then ae also felt bad for feeling bad for him, since he and Avior were enemies and it was basic friend code, really, your friend's enemy was also your enemy, but it had really seemed like he was badly injured, and ugh, it was all so confusing and frustrating, and couldn't people just get along with who they got along with? Couldn't they? ⋘◦⋙ "Hiya, Ant!" Garrett chirped from his place atop the kitchen counter, and it took Arin a moment to realize that Garrett was talking to aer. Even though ae had been home for a month now, it always took a moment to register that when someone said 'Ant', they were referring to aer. It wasn't that ae hated being referred to that way (but really, was 'Anthony' *that* hard to say? It was a little demeaning, to be named after an insect), no, ae didn't mind aer given name, but ae had changed it on a whim at the start of aer second session at Xiphoid camp to something a little more neutral, and had yet to tell aer family about that.
It went the same way for pronouns, too. Ae didn't mind any of them, actually, was perfectly fine with masculinity. But ae had gotten used to the way people referred to aer at Xiphoid, and it always took some adjusting to. "Hi, Garrett!" Arin replied. "Do you have anything in your mouth?" Garrett shook his head vigorously. "Good! Carry on!" Arin said, exiting the kitchen. It was nice to have a bit of authority, as the oldest. Here, people listened to aer. Except for Wilbur. Wilbur was a loose cannon if Arin ever saw one. He'd probably get along great with Avior. Or not. Avior was a hard person to get along with. There had been numerous occasions where Arin, who was a very nonviolent and non-loud person, had wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him and yell, "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?" "Oh, hello, Ant!" Dorothy called from her place on the couch. "Why don't you come join us?" She and Gary were watching one of those competitive TV shows, the kind involving a lot of parkour and people attempting to maneuver across an obstacle course. Arin always hated it when the contestants fell off the course. It looked like it hurt a lot. "All right," Arin said, sinking into the old couch. It may have been unreasonably lumpy, but something about it was so, so comfortable. Ae had only been sitting for a minute or two when a gray, fat cat leapt onto the couch and settled all twelve pounds of himself into aer lap, purring contentedly. "Hello, Professor Meekwumps," Arin said, patting the cat on the head. Professor Meekwumps was a very beautiful and wonderful boy, and Arin loved him with all of aer heart. Dorothy laughed and clapped her hands and Gary chuckled from his place in his recliner as a man misjudged the distance he would have to jump and completely overshot the small platform he intended to land on, falling right into the water below. Avior would probably get a kick out of this show, sadistic as he was. Arin hoped he was okay, what with the library incident and what ae had heard about his parents. If only there were a way ae could contact him. It brought to mind a memory of a blacklist they had created together, specific topics that they didn't have to talk about with each other. Girls, literature, family, and politics. Sounded like the strangest of book clubs. Why literature? That was a little unusual. What did he have against literature? Come to think of it, had Arin ever really seen Avior *read* anything? Or write anything? Or even— Oh. Wait. That, in fact, explained a great number of things. It was Avior's secret to keep, Arin decided. Ae wouldn't say anything about it. Arin brushed these thoughts aside and returned aer attention to the present. The house was warm and there was a cat on aer lap and ae was surrounded by people that loved aer. What more could someone need?
