Xavier Le Bourreau is a timeless man, rich in abundance and rich in resources; the Xavier that Slater sees now is the calm before the storm and the sweet before the bitter. In mere months time, he will be on his deathbed and only years later does he even recover, but by then he is no longer the joyful youth he is now.
It's always been terrible to see and this time is no different.
Slater wishes he could save him, but he cannot.
The last time he tried, it only happened again - each more brutal than the last.
Fate. If you can call it that.
Slater's encountered events that won't change no matter what he does. The world's end, Xavier's accident, some deaths, just to name a few. Slater rejects the World's End, unable to come to terms with the inevitably of nothingness.
If he can only just… stop it. Everything will be okay.
Right?
He keeps telling himself this, though sometimes he wonders if the end should just happen.
Never mind the fact that his system keeps this loop going perpetually. Slater has tried to give up before, countless times. Regression always finds him when he least expects it.
Releasing a sigh from his lips, he turns away from the view he has of Xavier and makes his focus Cherie again. It's just in time for the end of her speech detailing the anima tournaments and everything he already knew. This was all so menial and boring.
Head in hands, he closes his eyes. Focus. Focus. Focus.
A hand suddenly falls flat on his shoulder, startling him out of both his skin and his head. Slater's head swivels around with wide eyes until he finally recognizes that face. He knows it from anywhere, one of his few actual friends that repeats based on which save file he's within.
Asmier Versace.
She's just as buxom as she always is: auburn hair, molten chocolate eyes, and a figure anyone would kill for. “Are you okay?” She’s always been so kind, despite the cards she’d been dealt and lately Slater is wondering if she’s still whoring herself out just to make ends meet. He holds his tongue though, throws the thought away because that hasn’t happened yet.
He just has to remind himself.
“...Yeah, I just… I mean we already know about… everything going on here. So what’s the point of being here?” He knows why, it’s just to refresh and relax a bit before classes actually start.
She laughs, not at him, but at his words. “Do you want to skip? Jasper left already, too.” It’s a tempting offer, one that he’s on the verge of accepting. While he knows it’s much better for him to wait around here and make contact with certain event triggers… he also knows that not much is going to change if he skips out of orientation.
Just so long as he’s back before classes start.
“Sure.”
With that, she leads him out of the auditorium unawares of the dragon’s gaze watching them as they leave.
So much for going unnoticed.
It’s not far of a walk to make it to the breezeway that surrounds the courtyard. “I haven’t seen you at all this winter break, you haven’t been answering my texts either. Are you seriously okay, Slater?”
Asmier breaks the silence like she’s trained her whole life to do it. She kind of had to in order to deal with Slater. He is a tough cookie to crack and he hides more than he likes to tell. She doesn’t think she’s known anyone with as many secrets as he had but then again, maybe other people are just better at hiding it. When he doesn’t answer, she figures that it’ll take him some time so she clasps her hands behind her back and walks forward with a hop and a skip in her step. “I really did miss you, you know?” She starts off.
Slater tugs on his sleeves, finding it difficult to answer when he really could’ve answered her texts. He was conscious. He was alive, he had escaped the rift — he just… couldn’t really bring himself to say anything. He was researching and refamiliarizing himself with everything but he still couldn’t ( he’s never told her ) say anything about the time traveling, or the truth of his anima.
As far as anyone knew, his anima was just video game themed just like the rest of his family. That’s all the chip readers picked up anyhow and he’d be stupid to just tell The Association that he has the power of time on his side.
The last time he did that, he ended up getting experimented on and then murdered.
Finally, he builds up his answer. “I know. I’m sorry…”
A weak apology for an excuse he doesn’t even have.
There is a silence between them, Asmier seems to sigh, then chirps out a response. “I forgive you!” She always does and he’s beginning to wonder if he’s just taking advantage of her kindness and bright personality.
Both of them know she’s not that bright.
“...Thanks…” This time he plasters a smile on his face, allowing the ease of the moment to flow through him. “You know… we have some classes together and-”
Asmier holds out a hand in front of him, forcing them both to a stop before she wraps her hand around his wrist and pulls him to the side.
He almost gives away their position until he hears a voice that’s ruined his life plenty of times.
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Yanis.
The guy was a well-known jerk-face, asshole, piece of utter shit. Whatever you wanted to call it and he’s had his fair share of fun ruining Slater’s life and his friends’ lives, too. It was a good thing that Asmier caught him first, Slater isn’t sure he’s at all ready to face the other man yet. Not now. Not here.
As they begin to pass by within the breezeway, pieces of Yanis’ conversations with his lackeys can be heard.
“Yeah, I still have the pics. You should’ve seen the way he pissed himself, fucking freak.” Yanis has a laugh that’s reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard. It’s grating on the ears. His voice even more so, though it’s still that same kind of voice that matches his charisma. It’s really one of the only reasons he can get away with running amok. “I have to ask Fester to give me a bitch to fuck, too.”
One of the shorter ones, stubbier with big eyes starts up with a broad grin. “Could I have one, too?” And he would be cute and popular with girls who liked that sort of vibe had his preferred company been better chosen. Slater almost feels bad for him, especially with how his future never turns out well for as long as he’s friends with Yanis.
Unfortunately, the taller and more handsome of the two, gives the shorter boy a glower. “No. You can’t. Maybe if you actually did something useful, I would ask Fester to be easy on you.”
Eric recoils, muttering an apology.
Slater really wants to jump out, but the grip Asmier has on him lasts until the group disappears around the corner. That’s when she finally releases him and they step out of the shadows. “That was a close one.”
“You’re telling me!” Asmier gives him a harsh whisper, almost afraid that if she speaks too loud that Yanis might come right back around the corner. “If I hadn't smelled his atrocious cologne, we would’ve been in for a terrible time.”
It’s a good thing that Yanis’ body odor and perfume hygiene was just as atrocious as his personality.
A laugh lets loose from his lips and he begins to carry on, turning around in order to walk backwards and try and be a more present friend to Asmier.
He watches her smile as she carries forward, making him all the more aware of how much taller she was than him. He hopes he will grow more, but he’s never grown any taller than 5’7” until he’s bent the rules of his body through other means.
It’s not enough of a worry for him to do anything about it now that he’s sixteen.
“So where did Jasper go? The Gridlines? Or The Spot?” It wouldn’t be too bad to actually wind down, let loose, hang out with some of his peripheral friends. He’d need to check up on his best friends soon. Though guilt eats away at him.
Asmier opens her mouth to respond, he watches her do it, so why is she looking pale all of a sudden?
He almost keeps walking backwards, except he’s stopped by… a wall? No. That’s not a wall. He feels behind him and his hand makes contact with fabric. Oh. This is a person. This is a body that’s as sturdy as a wall.
Slater’s stomach drops to his feet and he dares to crane his head upwards.
What stares down at him, rather who stares down at him — the dragon — Oleander Green.
Fuck.
He stammers, trying to think of anything to say but the taller man just picks him up by the back of his collar like he’s some kind of kitten.
“I see you both are skipping the Orientation Assembly. Let’s return, shall we?”
Damn.
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The rest of the orientation leaves both Asmier and Slater sitting with another group of students who were caught skipping. Slater doesn’t recognize all of them but he isn’t really paying attention either. He’s biding his time, making eyes at Asmier and communicating with their eyebrows when they both can get away with it. When they’re caught inevitably by Oleander, both of their expressions turn neutral.
It’s moments like these that remind Slater that it’s not so bad being alive.
When the assembly is finally dismissed, he is slow to rise. Stretching his back and listening to the sounds of his bones popping and cracking back into a state of relief.
“You sound like you need to go see a chiropractor.” Asmier states.
“They’d kill me.” He retorts.
“Well! You’re always talking about needing a factory reset.”
Slater rolls his eyes at her words, choosing to ignore it in favor of watching Oleander talk to Cherie for a moment. Rather, she’s talking to him. Handing him a stack of papers, explaining… something. He doesn’t know quite what they’re talking about but he figures that she’s just giving him notes to take to his brother. It isn’t important. If it was important, his anima would’ve reacted to it.
Most likely.
Hopefully.
“Classes are starting now, you know. C’mon.” Asmier yanks him from his thoughts, looping their arms as she begins to rush out of the auditorium. Slater gives one last parting glance to Oleander’s back before he’s turning away and around. He misses the peculiar look the dragon gives him.
They get out into the hallway, forgoing the busy breezeway in order to take a path less traversed. “So, what’s your schedule, more accurately.” Of course that’s how she starts off, already pulling out her phone and projecting out a holographic schedule formed by Pocket.
Pocket controls everything.
“I have history with Jasper annndddd I think Anima Control 101, too…” Asmier rattles off, expecting him to interject or pull up his own schedule.
Slater is just watching her go over which classes she’s taking and with who. He doesn’t need to look at his schedule, he remembers-
Nothing.
Actually, he doesn't really remember his classes. Why doesn’t he remember his- yeah. He’s in a restricted access, fucked up save file. He’s not supposed to remember that much from these runs.
He honestly shouldn’t even be here.
As Asmier drones on, he takes out his phone and finally looks around for his schedule. He can see his Pocket ID with his age, his grade, and his bank balance too. That part was a bit abysmal but he knows how to make money.
Slater pulls up the schedule after a bit of work distracting himself, watching as the holographic schedule manifests before his eyes. His classes are… more advanced than he remembers them being though he supposes he has to blame his twin for that. “I have uh… study hall with you?” He starts, seeing the gap in the schedules here.
Most of his classes have always been geared up for his ease and his desire to speed through school. He hates staying here, more than anything. Though, he has to.
“Why is your schedule built so… horribly! Here, why don’t you change these and switch these and-”
Slater holds up a hand, swiping the holograph away before she could actually change anything on the screen. “No, I’ll see how it is for the first week before I change anything.”
Asmier seems to pout, but she supposes Slater has his reasons for it.
Seeing that the conversation dwindles to a halt there, she decides to pick up the slack and rattle away at what she did the previous break. Slater welcomes the noise as he once again falls into a place inside his own head.