'31 :: so it begins again

Instructions

○ welcome to another session of xiphoid camp! it's been one year since avior first met marcus, and their rivalry has only grown stronger since then. but sinister forces have begun to rear their ugly heads, which begs the question: who is *truly* in control? ◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜◝◜ standing alone outside xiphoid's front office, in the heat of mid-august, avior came to the grim realization that it had been exactly one year since he first found himself in this precise spot. unlike the year before, his parents had opted to skip the bus and drive the full way, dropping him off at the start of the road leading to xiphoid's front gate. and unlike the year before, there was no paperwork in sight, which came as a great relief. fred finch was talking somewhere above him (he never shut up. avior hated that), but he was not listening. he was instead staring straight ahead, past the cabins and the main office and into the forest where he knew alfonso was waiting in his mansion, plotting up all sorts of horrible schemes, no doubt. well, alfonso didn't own the rights to scheming. avior was just as capable of coming up with a twisted, awful plot, perhaps even more so. inevitably, his attention turned to the cabin off to the left with the bright purple door. was marcus already there? what would he say? what would he do? perhaps he would do and say nothing. that would be ideal. "...and that's it! you're all set!" fred finch exclaimed. "enjoy the first day!" avior ignored him and set off on the march of death towards tertius, the suitcase dragging over the path behind him. it felt like it was filled with boulders. he could have sworn it wasn't this heavy before. he took a deep breath and pushed open the door. the purple paint had begun to flake off in places. somebody ought to fix that. the cabin was dark and empty. he flipped the light switch and discovered that it was, in fact, deserted. nobody else had arrived yet. that was a relief. he didn't want to deal with bradley's overwhelming enthusiasm or nicolas's ego or marcus's marcusness. he was quite grateful for the fact that his parents had been in such a hurry. he dropped the suitcase and allowed the door to swing shut and set about unpacking his possessions and cleaning the cabin, which had fallen victim to an extreme quantity of dust. he even stood upon the suitcase to knock cobwebs out of the corners— a horrid but necessary job; and anyway nobody else would have even thought to do that— and finally there was nothing left to do but sit on the edge of his bed and stare at his shoes. the cabin felt almost alien when it was deserted like this. tertius was not meant to be quiet. it was filled with an overpowering sense of wrongness, this silence, and avior found himself wishing he had arrived a bit later. perhaps next time he would set the clocks in his house an hour early. or perhaps not. at least he had arrived before marcus. ⋘◦⋙ the first time the door swung open, todd walked in backwards, carrying one end of a box. bradley and james followed, steadying the other end, and the three older boys set the large cardboard box down on the thin rug and immediately left the cabin again. odd. they returned thrice more, the first two times with two other boxes, which joined the first on the rug; and the third time carrying suitcases and duffel bags. throughout this whole ordeal, none of them had noticed avior yet. he liked that. sneakiness was cool. it was bradley who saw him first. "hi!" he said, his face lighting up. "how long have you been here?" "longer than you," avior said. bradley made an apologetic face. "i can't believe i didn't see you! sorry about that!" he said. "how was your summer?" "good," avior lied. "what's in the boxes?" "furniture!" bradley's smile widened. "me, james, and todd finally saved up enough to get some better furniture for the cabin!" "what color is it?" avior asked immediately. if the furniture didn't match the rest of the cabin, he would probably set the whole camp on fire. there were very specific ways things were to be done: all furnishings in one room had to match each other in some way, the left shoe always went on first, and plaid was only acceptable for lumberjacks to wear. that was just how life worked. "i don't remember," bradley confessed. "todd picked them out," good. todd boyce was the only man around here avior would trust to understand the rules of life— at least, the ones pertaining to interior design. it was incredibly taxing, living with those five heathens. all of them were exceptionally disorganized to some degree, and that simply would not do at all. the world could only run smoothly if everything went in its rightful place and nobody put a toe out of line, ever. and if all insects died out. that would be great, too. he was dead terrified of anything with more than the normal amount of legs. spiders had no right to be shaped in that way.