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Post by Kitten King on Aug 24, 2012 3:38:14 GMT -5
It was a tough day.
He'd overslept (again) and been late to class, attempting to slink in the back with no luck. He found his homework for second period had gone missing, and then he'd slipped into a daydream during lunch and ended up having to shovel half his food down his throat in the last five minutes. They were all things that happened to him on a regular basis, sure, but to have them all happen on the same day? Lady Luck was just not on his side.
He was sitting in one of the courtyards now - the main one, with the big open halls on three sides. A couple of other students were enjoying free periods as well, lazing about in the grass or the shade of the trees, enjoying the good fall weather while it lasted. Soon enough, it would turn to wind and rain and icy cold, and everyone would scurry from class to dorm with little in-between.
Personally, Joey liked the times when he could be outside with other people. ...well. He wasn't with other people these days, but he was still around them. That was good enough.
It wasn't to say that he didn't know people, because he did! Just, not very well. He had plenty of acquaintances here and there, people he could nod and smile to, offer a "G'day" to once in awhile, but he didn't really talk much. It was... difficult to find someone he could talk to. Sigh. Oh well. Certain things couldn't be helped. In time, he'd find someone. He just had to be patient.
He sighed again, flipping his hood back and run fingers through his hair. He'd just cut it a few days ago - he was sure it probably looked like a regular hack job, but it was better than it being long and all over the place. He'd tried keeping it that way, but just... ugh. He was not repeating that fiasco. He shook it out a little, deciding the slight breeze felt good on his neck and that a couple of minutes with his hood down wouldn't hurt.
It was a tough day, but things were looking up.
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Ixtlilton
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Post by Ixtlilton on Aug 24, 2012 15:14:44 GMT -5
Kari had... settled in. He'd made a few friends and things were getting a little heated (in a good way) between himself and one of those friends. Kari had never been particularly interested in having a boyfriend, but he had to admit the idea was appealing. Even if it did leave him with more questions than answers. Was he gay? He'd never THOUGHT about boys that way, but he'd never thought about girls that way either. And now that he was thinking about it, he was kind of thinking about both!
He'd headed out to the courtyard, or one of them anyway, to try and clear his head. His only benefit was that he was pretty sure his maybe-future-boyfriend-who-knows was even more confused about the whole thing than Kari was.
He had been quite prepared to just relax by himself, when something caught his eye.
Dear.
GOD.
He was next to the poor boy before even KARI had a moment to realize he was moving. "Oh my god! What happened to your HAIR?!" he exclaimed, reaching a hand out as if to grab at it. He glanced down at the startled boy, formulating a hypothesis. "Oooooh, it was those stupid BULLIES, wasn't it?! Lemme guess, didn't like a boy with long hair? They told me they were going to cut mine right off! I was about to just start hurling them off of cliffs!"
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Post by Kitten King on Aug 24, 2012 16:19:42 GMT -5
Oh jeez! All the sudden this girl was right there, loud and upset all over his... hair? Man, maybe leaving his hood down had been a bad idea. He listened to her go on for a second in confusion. Bullies? He knew about the general group. There was a new rash of them each year, as the old ones left the new ones came in. Luckily for him, his status was pretty much under wraps... no problem with them in these four years. When his hair had first grown out, he'd had one little scrap, but he'd kept on it since then. They were pains in the ass, but they left him alone, generally.
"N-no," he managed to get out, rubbing the back of his head in slight embarrassment. "I uhm.. did it myself. N-not the best with scissors, ya know?" He was still a little confused about a couple things, though. Boys with long hair... what did that have to do with cutting hers off? She wasn't... oh. OH. His hand fell back to his lap, and he stared at Kari for a second (before realizing he was) then looked away again. "..is it really that bad..?"
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Ixtlilton
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Post by Ixtlilton on Aug 24, 2012 16:35:16 GMT -5
"...Huh? ... Oh. .... OH."
Kari, rather slowly, kind of realized that he'd just accosted someone for having terrible hair. "I.... um.... It's... uuuuuuh...." He said, for once finding himself kind of speechless. It was BAD. Like, really bad. That was why he'd assumed it had been a bully job. "Ummmmmm.... It's... ...homemade?" Yeah okay that didn't even SOUND like a compliment.
"You know, I'm more of a cook, but I style my own hair... I have a kit up in my room. I don't suppose you'd let me take a hack at it?" He paused again, looking the older guy up and down. His voice was kind of high pitched and he didn't look particularly manly. He reminded Kari of Zeke, actually, but Kari had the nagging feeling that he had a decent chance of accidentally misgendering. Time to avoid pronouns and watch for gender hints. "I mean, um, you know, if you don't, uh... want it that way. I mean, you could! It's uh... It's... unique!"
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Post by Kitten King on Aug 24, 2012 17:13:59 GMT -5
Joey felt his face go red as the other boy struggled to find words. He lifted a sleeved arm, rubbing his mouth and trying to hide his inevitable embarrassment. Yeaahh... okay. That told him all he needed to know. He knew the front was horrible, and he couldn't really see the back, so he could only imagine. A little smile appeared on his face though, unforced - it was the first time someone had offered to do something nice like that for him in a long time.
Much too long a time.
"Oh, it's not intentional, believe me. I just can't seem to handle scissors for the life of me." He ran his fingers through it again, still a little red in the face. "A little help would be... really nice. Thanks, mate." He brought his hand back down, holding it out. "Name's Joey - what about you?"
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Ixtlilton
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Post by Ixtlilton on Aug 24, 2012 17:21:57 GMT -5
"Kari Trueman, nice to meet you," he said, a smile breaking through the concentrated awkward that had previously been covering his face. "It can be really hard to cut your own hair. That's why I only style mine. But... you know, I can't imagine that I can do much worse," he said with a laugh. "C'mon, I live up in the second tower. The room's a bit pink, fair warning. Unprepared people have been known to go into hypervolemic shock."
Well, Joey was normally a boy's name, so Joey was either a boy or butch, and either way probably wouldn't object to being refered to with male pronouns or thought of as a he. Too bad Kari wasn't better at translating Australian accents, or he might be a better guesser. "So, I take it you're from Australia? What brings you all the way to Ansembourg?" Ansem was a far cry from America, too, but there were a LOT of American students there.
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Post by Kitten King on Aug 24, 2012 17:35:27 GMT -5
"Nice to meet you, Kari," Joey replied. "Don't worry - I don't mind pink much." He actually didn't - it was a nice color, all and all. He just tended to avoid it because, well. Did he need any more reasons to get mistaken for a girl? He followed Kari, getting up from the ground and brushing himself off. "And yeah - I'm Australian. Come from out near Brisbane." He had to think for a moment on the question, hesitating on what he should say.
"Well... it just seemed like a good idea," he settled on, pulling his hood back up. "Good change of pace, friendly environment." There was plenty he would be willing to divulge to Kari, considering the circumstance and how long it had been since he'd really talked to someone, but this particular issue was one that didn't need talking about.
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Ixtlilton
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Post by Ixtlilton on Aug 25, 2012 11:38:31 GMT -5
Kari smiled. "Good to find someone without a dramatic story. It seems like most of the people here have way more problems than solutions. I mean, it's understandable... but it can get you down after a while, you know?"
"Alright! This is my room!" Kari announced, opening the door to his dorm. It was kind of like someone had drawn a line through the middle and painted half pink. In a few places, the pink sort of dripped over, like the large pink TV in the middle of one of the walls, but the two roommates seemed like they more or less had a line down the middle and an agreement in place.
"Here, I'll pull out a chair and get my stuff," he said cheerfully. "It's under my bed... Normally I lose stuff but this room is so small, it makes that impossible."
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Post by Kitten King on Aug 25, 2012 13:54:41 GMT -5
He laughed a little at that, just quietly. It was true, in actuality. From what he knew, a lot of the students here had it way worse than he did. It was nice to just shove that out of your mind for a little while, though. Kari had the right idea there.
Wow, that was one pink room. Well, at least on the one half. And so much stuff had been crammed in there, too! Over his 3 years at Ansem he'd hoarded away a fair chunk himself, but he felt it was nothing compared to the sheer amount of accessories to this room. After all, a television? Where did he even get signal? Yeesh. His eyes traveled over it, taking in the almost-line in the middle, noting that nothing on Kari's side was pulled down, marked over, or sabotaged in any way.
"...you must have a very tolerant roommate," was the first thing that came out of Joey's mouth. It wasn't snide, but merely matter-of-fact. Whatever boy roomed with Kari, he must be very laid back. Or very oblivious. Either way made sense, and either way, well... "You're very lucky." It was quiet, and it just slid out, but he meant it. If they could find someone tolerant of that, couldn't they find someone tolerant of him? Ugh. He supposed they just didn't want to open that can of worms. 'Better safe than sorry', and all that.
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Ixtlilton
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Post by Ixtlilton on Aug 25, 2012 21:01:42 GMT -5
"Oh, Zeke? Yeah, you'd LOVE him!" Kari said cheerfully. "I was really super nervous when I met him. I mean, my first day here I got chased by aformentioned bullies... had to hide behind some grumpy fire bender. So I was about frantic when it came time to meet the roommate. But actually, I'm finding most people here are pretty cool. I mean, Nic was startled, and sometimes I think Travis forgets. But everyone's been pretty cool about it, once they figure out what in hell I am."
Kari threw down a sheet, put a chair on it, and plopped Joey down on the chair. He then pulled out a box, tossed it on the bed, and sat down on the edge of the bed himself, scissors out and ready.
"I have to admit, though, I'm pretty surprised you're not more surprised. I think most of the reason people are generally so nice is that when most people see me, they just peg me for female. I'm on hormone stoppers... I was so used to living at home, where everyone knew, that I was astounded to find out I could actually pass." He shrugged. "Maybe that should be more important to me than it is, since it results in a lot less attacks... but I don't really want people to think of me as a girl. Boys and girls should be able to wear whatever they want."
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Post by Kitten King on Aug 25, 2012 22:44:50 GMT -5
Wow. Kari... he had it. Joey plopped down in the chair, which was surprisingly sturdy for its type, and listened. Yeah, Kari was a puzzle alright, but to Joey it just sounded like he had it all. Amazing roommate, understanding friends, an accepting home, even. What the earth manipulator wouldn't give for something like that. He was, however, thoroughly distracted by the mention of hormone blockers.
"You can get those?" he blurted out, unable to hold it in. Realizing, he quickly backpedaled. "Er, i-it's just that in Austrailia, or most parts of it, you've got to be over 16 to get them..." He wasn't going to give Kari time to think about how he knew that little fact. "But YEAH, I agree, that boys and girls should be able to wear whatever they want. Locking certain things into one gender only is pretty stupid." It wasn't that he minded if Kari knew - it was just that it shouldn't be important. If it came up, it came up, but... until then he was PERFECTLY fine with no one else knowing that he was a little mismatched.
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Ixtlilton
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Post by Ixtlilton on Aug 26, 2012 0:13:05 GMT -5
Kari gave Joey a bit of an odd look, then shrugged. "The UK is picky about it too, I hear... But in America you can get them if you jump through enough hoops. OR, you know, if you're rich enough. You probably don't know; I dunno if we have any shipping to Australia, but my dad own's Truer Foods. In America, as much as the rest of the world, there's NOTHING enough money can't get you."
His vague suspicions about Joey were kind of confirmed now. No transGIRL would massacre her hair like that, anyway. Kari hadn't known there were any gender variant people at Ansem, but heck, most of the school probably didn't know. He passed.
"I'm fourteen, by the way. I dunno how long I'm going to take hormone stoppers. I don't really want estrogen, but I don't particularly want testosterone either. I probably can't just take the stoppers for my whole life... but it gives me time to think, you know?"
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Post by Kitten King on Aug 26, 2012 0:40:02 GMT -5
"Truer Foods?" He had heard of it, actually. "Yeah, I know the name! There's not a lot where I live, but it's definitely a brand that's out there. Wow, no wonder..." That explained Kari having all these things in the room that most Ansem students couldn't afford. It also gave Joey a great brand to support, for future reference. He was sure he'd remember that one.
"Yeah, I understand." Someone like Kari had a lot think about, when it came to that. Not female, but doesn't want the masculine physique.. there was probably a way to keep that balance, or if there wasn't, it probably would in the future. He wiggled a little in the chair, somewhat unintentionally. "..so how's my hair? Can you save it?" His tone was light, joking. Honestly, he'd be glad to have his hair fixed, but if it still wasn't the best, that was okay. He guessed he just didn't care about it as much as some people - probably because he had his hood up so much.
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Ixtlilton
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Post by Ixtlilton on Aug 26, 2012 0:48:57 GMT -5
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, definitely," Kari said, nodding. He'd kind of been rambling there for a while. "I mean, I dunno how short you WANT it... it's definitely going to be shorter, just so I can even it out. But the way you have it now is actually pretty /long/ so... Hold on, let me see if I can make this butcher job look intentional," he said with a chuckle as he snipped his way through Joey's hair. The room was a bit quiet with Kari's concentration as he spritzed and combed and snipped. Finally, he seemed satisfied.
"Alright... it's still MESSY, but it looks like it's messy on PURPOSE. Same with the different lengths... I think I managed to make it look stylish and intentional. What do you think?" he asked, holding up a hand mirror to Joey.
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Post by Kitten King on Aug 26, 2012 1:06:18 GMT -5
"Shorter is just fine," Joey said, still wishing he could see a little bit. "I'd have cut it shorter myself but I kept almost stabbing myself and thought it was probably best to play it safe." He tried not to move or talk too much as Kari styled, thought it was a bit of an odd sensation. It had been months since he'd let someone else touch his hair - he'd had a friend's help for awhile, before she graduated. Now she was gone and, welp. He'd just had to make due with scissors and a smudgy bathroom mirror. Speaking of mirrors, he took the hand one from Kari, peering into it.
"Woah," he said, pleasantly surprised. "That looks great, thank you so much, Kari." He set the mirror down in his lap, smiling. "Guess I won't HAVE to hide my hair in my hood all day now, huh?" He'd probably have his hood up a lot anyway, just out of habit, but he actually wouldn't mind having it down more if he could always look like this. He looked, well.. handsome. It was nice.
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