Coming Out

[Markise Sterling]

"You should know how anyway," Markise said, as hypocritical as the words might be. But then, he'd never really had the opportunity to learn how to make a good shield. There hadn't been a reason to at SWIM, not with how rare any kind of fight or duel was. And he intended to learn. "There's always going to be some idiot who doesn't know how to leave it alone." Or some group of idiots, when you least expected them.

[Jory Addison]

Jory looked over at Markise again and rested his cheek on his knee. "How am I supposed to learn?" he asked. It wasn't like he was friends with anyone that was really good with a wand, at least...not that he knew of. He wanted to keep himself safe, but he had never imagined that he would need to protect himself just because he didn't like girls!

[Markise Sterling]

Markise glanced aside at Jory, surprised for a moment at the question. Then he looked back over the water. He wouldn't volunteer Ariel, wouldn't even be tempted to do so, and he couldn't very well volunteer Michael, or any of the others, though he was fairly sure they knew how. "You don't know anyone who could teach you?" he asked hopefully.

[Jory Addison]

"If I do, then I don't know that I know them." Jory didn't know either Layne's or Lyric's skill with a wand when it came to fighting. He had never felt the need to know, just like he had never felt the need to learn to fight. There was, more or less, peace right now. The last true war had been years ago, and even his parents hadn't fought when it was happening.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise wracked his brain, but he couldn't think of anyone. He didn't know how his sister was doing in Defense, so he couldn't volunteer her, either. His mind passed over the idea of getting faculty to help. He'd never been a teacher's pet, and his experience at SWIM had soured him on how much a school would really do for its students. He shook his head, completely at a loss.

[Jory Addison]

Jory sighed and started chewing on the insides of his cheek. Maybe he could talk to Lyric, maybe he knew something about it, or maybe even Layne, though he couldn't imagine her dueling if her life depended on it. "Guess I'll just have to hope I stay far enough away from the jerks to be okay." That should be easy enough, unless one of them actively hunted him down.

[Markise Sterling]

"Stay out of the dungeons," Markise advised. "The Slytherins are real moody. They can be nice, but they freak out easy." Like Michael. Michael was a complete wuss, unless he imagined he'd been slighted. Then he sneered and argued and pulled his wand. He hadn't had any others pull a wand on him, or chase him through the corridors, but he had seen a few quick personality changes that were more than a little disturbing.

[Jory Addison]

Jory nodded, though he saw no reason to go to the dungeons anyway unless it was for class. "I'm good at keeping to myself, well...most of the time." He was also very good at forcing himself on someone else if he wanted to get to know them, like when Dare and Markise. "If I want to stay away from people, I can."

[Markise Sterling]

Markise nodded, but there wasn't much he could think to say to that. He didn't like being alone—staying away from people—even if he'd been forced to tolerate it since he'd first come to Hogwarts. He'd gotten more comfortable with silence during the summer, tempering his use of the Wizard's Wireless for Ariel, but he'd still had company. "You're new, right?" Markise asked after a minute or two. "Don't you have any friends around here yet?" He didn't count Dare, even if Dare had offered to talk to Jory, or whatever. Dare was too stuck on Michael to really be useful.

[Jory Addison]

"I have a couple of friends," Jory said. "But I knew Layne before I came up here, and the same with Lyric-" he caught himself and sighed heavily. "I mean Trent, I think. He never really said which one he wanted to be introduced as...." He had the feeling it was supposed to be Trent, though. But he liked the name Lyric too much to just throw it away.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise blinked, then looked over at Jory. It took him a moment to make the connection, but when he did, he nodded slightly. "I know one of those," he said. "I call him by his first name, and he doesn't mind." He never had minded, really. And when they'd met Anna, he hadn't bothered with his middle name at all. "If I ever meet him, I'll pretend I don't know," he teased.

[Jory Addison]

Jory managed a small smile and nodded, "Thanks. He doesn't mind when I call him Lyric, I don't think, he just said he used to get picked on for it in New York." And Lyric probably wouldn't like him spreading around details of his life, either. He sighed softly, but Lyric had, at least in the end, been okay with Layne knowing about them.

[Markise Sterling]

"Then he didn't know the right people," Markise said. "I'm from New York," he added. "I had friends that were cool with things." Of course, as obvious as everything must have been, he'd kept a lot to himself. They'd never known of any crushes he might have had, and he'd been fine keeping them to himself. "Some people are just a~holes, and there's nothing you can do about it but stay away from them and watch your back."

[Jory Addison]

"I didn't have to worry about people like that back home, or at my old school. Haven't had to here, either, not until just recently." Jory hadn't considered that that could be a bad thing, not when it had just made everything so much easier. He had had a good life, and so far nothing drastic had happened. He had no reason to expect it to change, either, no matter how naive a thought that was.

[Markise Sterling]

"Were you out then?" Markise asked. "It makes a difference." Wasn't that an understatement? His hair and makeup had meant little at SWIM besides an eccentricity of one of the 'artsy' people until he'd come out. Then it had been proof of his sins. It had been an easy mark for those who disapproved of his alleged choice to be attracted to boys instead of girls.