Magdalene giggles as she walks with JJ down the hall. Both smile and say "hi" as they pass me.

"So now what, Cory?" I ask myself.

Keep sulking, I guess.

Out the window I hear muffled shouting. The Compound Director is wagging her finger and angrily talking down to an MP officer who looks petrified, head down to the authority before her.

The Director wails on for a few more seconds before taking notice of me staring at them, and then motioning me to keep walking.

"Okay, okay," I mutter, continuing my way down the hall.

Across from me at the lunch table, Maggie and JJ still seem to be flirting, at least it seems.

"Hey, Cory," Mags says. "Wanna join us after lunch?" She smiles, not losing any excitement after turning to me.

I hesitate for a little. "Nah, you two have fun."

"Okay! You're still invited if you change your mind. We will be in Room 12," She smiles, before turning back to JJ, touching his hand.

Another hand touches my left shoulder. "Don't mind her," a gentle voice in my left ear says. In the empty seat to my left, a slender girl with long black hair down to her waist, and equally dark eyes.

"Ari," she politely grins, extending a hand for me to shake. Her nails are painted black, just like Lori's.

"Corvus. Or, Cory. Nice to meet you," I find myself grinning right back at her.

Ari sits down, tilting her head, hands in lap. "Dare I ask you to tell me about yourself, what the other Chosens haven't already?"

Oh?

"What are they saying about me?" I smirk.

"Mm," she mutters in playful hesitation, resting her chin on her palm, smiling more intensely. "Mostly good things."

"Uh-huh?"

She looks around, giggling, maybe embarassed. "They say you'd be really impressive if you just had some more enthusiasm, though most of them are quite pleased with you anyways."

I chuckle. "Heh, okay."

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"I'm guessing you're from Cauldron?"

"Yeah. You?"

"I moved here a few months ago from Meteor Falls. Got tired of the limited opportunities and the whole mining-town vibe."

"Opportunities?"

"Yeah. Cauldron's art scene is way bigger, as you'd imagine," she reaches into her backpack, black with silver zippers, and pulls out her tablet. Upon turning it on, she places it on the table, then a hologram of a room's walls covered with very elaborate, curvy stripes and gradients appears. She slowly rotates for both of us to see.

"I'm not sure about what this place is, but I just let my gut feeling do the rest," she says, looking at her work. "Oh, damn, I missed that," she takes her stylus out and revises what seems like a perfectly good spot.

"I am not qualified to critique this," I laugh. "I'm impressed in any case."

"Thank you!" she says sweetly, looking back at me. "Damn it, you know what? Let me try this..." she draws a few lines around the spot, pulling around what seems like a mesh or skeleton surrounding the abstract black waves on a white wall, and taps a holo-button which begins to fill the spot and create folds in the stripes she edited.

"How did you do that?"

"Artyom," she points to the logo in the corner. "Really speeds up the work. It'd be so much more if I could get a MIRCS connected to it, but a girl can dream."

"That's really-"

"What kind of art do you like?"

I was about to say "Jackal Hunters" but I've got a feeling that already too many people know about my interest in... her.

"Uh... Landscapes?"

Ari then quickly turns to her tablet, sets it to 2D, and starts with smooth lines, perhaps mountains, or smooth hills- on a horizon.

"Do you like morning, afternoon, or night time?"

God, this girl. "Afternoon...? Sunset, I guess?"

She taps her pen around, turning the entire scene a vibrant purple and orange, and draws an arc that starts to materialize into a setting sun, and slashes around ripples of reflecting water right at the edge of the horizon.

"Let's put something else there. Do you like certain animals?"

"I kinda like birds."

She starts adding sihlouettes of geese or whatever on the top right of the scene.

Not what I thought of with "birds", but I let her keep drawing.

We both look at the picture for a few seconds, until Ari adds the outline of a girl or young woman facing the sunset, in a dress, hair loose in the breeze, standing and facing the water ahead.

She draws one line to move the lady's arm to reach that of what I assume is a man, holding hands, watching the sunset together.

"It's so cliche, but yeah," She places the pen down, lays the tablet flat, and stretches the image out to a 3D scene, pulling the hair and dress of the woman-figure to depth, and repositioning the sun further away to the center of the table, making it invisible from my angle, but as I get up from the chair and step back, the sun reappears, and the scene takes the form of the 2D version.

"You like it?" She says, charmed by my examination.

"Do I seem like I like it?" I smirk at her, then looking back at this concoction.

She blushes slightly, taking a couple seconds to gaze at me, clearly pleased with my response. "What are you having for lunch?"

I look at the blank table space in front of me. "Nothing for now, apparently. Ugh, shit," I grumble, getting up from my chair and looking at the long line ahead of us at the tables of food.

"I'll wait with you," she stands up as well.