Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on Sept 8, 2013 16:29:08 GMT -5
He was really cutting it close today. Usually Dante could at least manage to make it to class on time, but today the universe seemed to have tilted so that everything that could go wrong did go wrong. His alarm didn’t go off and he’d slept in an hour later than he was supposed to, no thanks to his sisters not waking him up. Speaking of Felicia and Guiliana, they’d also taken over the upstairs bathroom and made it near impossible to properly get his hair done much less anything else. He’d at least gotten the curls out of it, though it looked more windblown than he generally tolerated. Next was that their parents had each left for work early leaving Dante to cook for himself and his harpy siblings which had taken far too long for his taste, being only half awake and mildly ill-tempered. All three were in a rush at that point, but then of course the microwave had failed. All three of the Giovanni children had noted the clock read a half hour past their usual departure time and decided to grab whatever they saw in the fridge and book it to Shibusen, empty stomachs or no. There would always be lunch time to make up for it. The crosswalks had rallied against them, turning red at every possible chance, and of course Dante tripped over every curb and Felicia stopped to look at her own reflection in windows at least twice. When they finally made it up the steps, the morning crowds were thinning. His sisters had departed for their own classes and Dante had rushed through the doors, ducking in between the other moving bodies blocking his way and determined to still make it before the bell rang. Once again, the entire world was against him. He ran straight into a door as it was opened from another classroom, rendering him red in the face and also sending him backpedaling a ways. Upon further inspection he found that his nose was actually bleeding which warranted a trip to the bathroom until it stopped. More time that he honestly didn’t have. The Sicilian only hoped it wasn’t broken. The blond had impatiently stared down his own reflection waiting for the nosebleed to end, and when it finally did he doused his face in cold water before shaking his head and speeding back down the hall. The only perk was that most people were actually in class and seated, so at least he didn’t run into anyone. At last, Dante threw open the door the classroom in the most dramatic manner possible. Rather than waste time with more stairs, he vaulted over and up the first three rows of desks before finding his own, lifting his legs over and spinning into his seat entirely out of breath. The teacher side-eyed him and said nothing. The blond glanced at the clock and sighed with relief. He made it with ten minutes to spare, thank goodness. A grin spread over his face, however tired it seemed as he slung his backpack onto his desk and began rooting around for his notebook and a pen, intermittently tilting his head up out of the paranoia that his nose would start up oozing red again just to irk him further. He was sure he had to look like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, or at least a distant relative, by how much it ached.
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Post by Conor Sullivan on Dec 26, 2013 22:58:45 GMT -5
"Down, Daisy," Conor said, squinting as the blurry mass of a German Shepard settled at his feet. He got to class early for a reason - so that he could get an aisle seat, making it easy for Daisy to lay down and behave herself. There wasn't a lot of room in the center desks. Being early also meant he had plenty of time to scale the steps - with Daisy barking the signal that meant Conor was at the top one - and find the room. Unfortunately, that did mean that he had a good twenty minutes to sit and wait and listen as the other students filed in, blurry masses of browns that drifted in front of his (poor) vision. Conor flicked his lighter open and closed impatiently. He had been here for ten minutes already.
He didn't mind how long he had to wait, but it did get slightly boring. Uneventful. All Conor brought to class was a small recorder for the lectures to use in place of notetaking, and it was already sitting in front of him on the desk. He sighed.
A blur to his left caused him to overreact, throwing himself to the side, and he heard the ruffle and clink of Daisy's tags as she bounced up and slid behind his chair. Someone had slid over the desk, Conor realized, peicing the past three seconds together. The shape next to him confirmed it, and the heavy breathing and relieved sigh indicated that whoever was sitting next to Conor had his opposite problem - that is, fear of being late to class.
Daisy whined and stuck her cold nose in the center of Conor's palm, her way of letting him know she was hungry. Her tail was wagging, and by the sound of it, was hitting the person in the seat next to him. Conor laughed, putting his lighter on the desk and reaching in his backpack and grabbing the bag of treats. "Just one, okay?" He said, and Daisy put one of her paws on his knee, like she knew he was full of it. She never got just one - Conor's family spoiled her, and none more so than Conor himself.
"Daisy, lay down. Over here. Don't crowd people," Conor said firmly, and he watched as Daisy's blurry mass ambled back over to the aisle, and Conor held the treat out. Daisy had gobbled it down in less than a second, and he scratched her behind the ears before she snuffled happily and laid down. Conor turned to the person next to him, trying his best to focus on where he assumed their face was. It was hard to tell with the cateracts. He usually ended up looking too far down, at people's chests, which had caused some unfortunate confusion in the past.
"Sorry about Daisy," he said, hand searching the desk for his lighter and closing around the familiar metal. "She's usually better about being in class, but she's kind of restless today. She only got a short walk this morning."
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on Dec 30, 2013 17:58:04 GMT -5
The dog was new. Dante had rushed in so fast he hadn’t even seen the canine in the aisles, but then he also hadn’t noticed the boy next to him either. Man, he really was out of it this morning. The tail wagging cued him in as the dog’s tail knocked him in the knee a few times. The blond smiled. After the crap morning he’d had, it was nice to see something so lively, even if it appeared only for the treats the dog’s owner seemed to be slipping to her. It helped he had a soft spot for dogs, but then Dante was allergic to cats. He could be around them well enough, but close contact provoked sneezing and if he pet them it only got worse, and he didn’t even want to think about past instances of hives he’d gotten from unexpected felines.
Dante watched the dog who was apparently named Daisy follow the order she was given, granted the fact that there was a treat guiding her likely helped. Still, she seemed well-trained, and when the kid net to him looked at him he noted why. His eyes were milky, but through that he could spy blue and grey. The boy seated next to him was blind. Another indicator was how he wasn’t quite looking at Dante but not quite, slightly past him. The blond didn’t get why he was apologizing, but went with it, a light smile on his face even if the kid couldn’t see it,
“Don’t worry about it, I mean I did make a rather sudden entrance. Besides, I like dogs.”
His tone was light as usual, if a bit nasally. Sniffling a bit, he again righted how he was holding his head, keeping it back still. He knew that the nosebleed coming back was unlikely, but he still didn’t want to chance it. Not with his luck already having been t zero all morning. The last thing he needed was to start bleeding all over the place before class. He didn’t think his nose was broken, but he had the feeling once the redness died down he would have a bruise for a little bit. The pain was down to a dull throb whenever he inhaled, but so long as it wasn’t broken he could manage. He didn’t fancy a trip to the infirmary any time soon.
Rearranging things a bit, Dante managed to find a pen in his backpack and set it down by notebook before shuffling around and sliding the bag under his desk near his feet. He was starting to settle down now that he knew that he wasn’t late and nothing else bad had happened yet. Still, he kept waiting. With his luck, one of the lights would drop down from the ceiling and kill him at this rate, but he tried not to think about it.
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Post by Conor Sullivan on Jan 29, 2014 1:40:41 GMT -5
"Well, hey, sudden entrances break up the routine," Conor laughed. "And even if you didn't like dogs, Daisy grows on you. She's pretty mellow." He paused. "Unless you're allergic, I guess," he added after a moment.
The boy next to him had a nice voice. Conor put a lot of stock in people's voices; It was why he loved movies and music so much. Even just listening to people talk was fascinating - the emotions, the cadence, the rhythmic nature. His mother always said you can hear a lot of what someone isn't saying by their voice and not their words, and it had struck a chord with him. It was a skill he'd tried to hone, to mixed success. It was hard enough without visual cues like body language or facial expressions, but he'd gotten good at picking up the small things.
For example, the other student's voice had just the hint of an accent, a slight hitch on some letters just so that Conor couldn't place exactly where he was from. It sounded vaguely familiar, but Conor had mentally moved on. In any case, it was a voice that wasn't unpleasant to hear - easy on the ears. Conor decided he liked this kid. Maybe hearing someone talk wasn't the best way to judge character, but for Conor it was good enough.
The irregular breathing kind of worried him, though. At first, Conor had passed it off as the heavy breathing of a late student, and then rummaging as the kid pulled stuff out of his bag, but when those had settled there was still a hitch, like it hurt to breathe, and then quickly exhaling through the mouth, like...
Did he hurt his nose or something? Conor wondered.
Sometimes it weirded Conor out that he noticed people's breathing patterns, but he relied on his hearing more than any other sense thanks to years of just sitting in the dojo and listening to the room around him. Humans tended to breathe certain ways when they were hurt, and when you make small whimpering noises when you breathe through your nose, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's wrong. It was all he could hear, anyways. The kid was sitting right next to him.
"Are...you okay?" He asked, brows furrowing in concern.
Did he get in a fight? That'd be pretty cool, he thought, before realizing he was at Shibusen. Everyone got in a fight sooner or later. Nah, it's still pretty cool.
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on Feb 2, 2014 2:06:24 GMT -5
At the very least, the kid didn’t seem put off by Dante’s sudden entrance into the classroom. That was a relief. He would’ve felt bad being the asshole in the class that scared the blind kid, and that would definitely not have helped his already crap track record for that morning. Hopefully this was a sign that things were looking up. Maybe he just needed to make it to class to set the day straight and get his act together, granted there wasn’t too much room to embarrass himself while he was sitting down waiting for class to start. In the meantime he at least had met someone new. That was always a plus in Dante’s book.
For a minute, Dante was puzzled as to just how the boy beside him had picked up that he’d hurt himself. He was sure he wasn’t mistaken that this kid probably couldn’t see if the cataracts were anything to go by, so what could it have been? It took the blonde a moment, but he did manage to respond. The pause before speaking was getting less painful, though he still didn’t sound quite right, “Nah, nothing to worry about. I kinda ran into a door this morning on my way in.”
He chuckled a bit to try and not seem like a total moron, but the action made his sinuses sting and he winced. It could’ve been worse; he could’ve run into something else like a truck or a balance beam. Both were highly unlikely scenarios though, and for that Dante was thankful since neither of those things sounded at all favorable to running into a door. Ignoring the dulling throb that hit him in the face with each breath, Dante attempted to keep polite conversation going.
“My name’s Dante by the way. Dante Giovanni.”
So long as they were sitting next to each other, Dante figured he may as well try and make a new friend out of the day. The morning had gotten off to a shitty shaky start, sure, but that didn’t mean the rest of the day had to be terrible too. The boy next to him seemed nice enough, plus his dog was friendly. Dante cast a glance over to the German shepherd and smiled at her, though he made no move to try and touch her. He didn’t want to distract a service dog, even if her own was technically stationary for the time being.
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Post by Conor Sullivan on Apr 27, 2014 15:01:16 GMT -5
"I'm Conor! Conor Sullivan," he replied in turn. "Sorry about doors. I'm not a huge fan of them, either."
He hesitated, reaching down and absentmindedly scratching Daisy behind the ears.
"You don't usually sit around here, right?" He asked, grinning as Daisy moved her head into his lap and poked her nose into his knee. He continued petting her head, rubbing her ears and hearing her snuffle happily. "Your voice isn't familiar to me. And I always remember a cute voice."
To be completely honest, a lot of voices weren't familliar to Conor. He hadn't been at the school long, after all. But he knew the sounds of the students who usually sat in his general area, and today the classroom was absent of their chatter, something Conor had been a little bummed about. He liked being in crowds. There was something inherently comforting about being surrounded by people, and ever since he was a little kid, Conor had enjoyed going to public places and just sitting and listening to the world around him.
He privately wondered if that made him an eavesdropper.
Daisy exhaled, licking Conor's hand. He hadn't realized he had stopped scratching her behind the ears, and he moved to remedy it.
"Anyways, Dante," Conor added, realizing he'd been quiet for a good chunk of time, "it's nice to meet you!" He grinned. Conor smiled easily and often, a crooked smile that lit up his whole face. Of course, he didn't know that. He'd stared into mirrors before, but all that he saw in them was a foggy, blurry mass.
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on May 3, 2014 21:31:22 GMT -5
Dante managed to snicker at Conor’s door comment, but once again wound up flinching. Christ almighty, how hard did he hit that thing? Bringing a hand up to gingerly rub the bridge of his nose, the blonde made a not to remember the blind kid’s name. He seemed nice so far, and he was a new face. Dante also noted that he really didn’t know many other than Tori who were also in the NOT class, so that was also a plus. With any luck, he’d see Conor again even as they progressed through the levels.
At Conor’s question, Dante had to actually lift his head to survey the classroom. He didn’t typically pay attention to where he was, per se, he just navigated to the same seat on impulse. He opened his mouth to respond, but the blind boy’s remark about his voice stunned him before any words left him. Instead of anything even remotely sounding like a human language, Dante made a rather shrill sound that caught in the back of his throat. Oh God, it was happening again. It didn’t help that this was the first time anybody had flirted with him since he’d broken up with his girlfriend, and it’d been years since a guy had been interested in him. All thought flew out of Dante's brain as it short-circuited as he scrambled for words. Suddenly glad Conor couldn’t see the obvious color that hit him full in the face, Dante made the stuttered response of, “R-right, I usually sit more towards the m-middle but I was running really late today s-so I had to compromise!”
Oh for the love of-this was getting out of hand. What sort of Casanova was he if he could flirt with the best of them easily but not be able to take someone actually flirting back? Granted he could also have been reading too much into it. Either way, he’d just met the kid. Dante disregarded the comment for the time being sliding down in his seat while he now fully covered his face in an attempt to regain any scrap of dignity he had left. Calm down, you are such a mess today!.
After a good long while of hearing nothing but Daisy’s snuffling, Dante nearly jumped when Conor spoke again. Not as embarrassed after having had a moment to compose himself, Dante smiled easily back at Conor and nodded, “Likewise. Always happy to put a name to a new face.” Dante sat up a bit straighter, leaning back in his chair just enough so the front two feet lifted off the ground. Given his luck it likely wasn’t the best idea, but just sitting still had never been his strong suit. Golden eyes darted back to Conor out of curiosity, “Not to pry, but how long have you been at Shibusen? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”
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Post by Conor Sullivan on May 4, 2014 15:56:22 GMT -5
Dante squeaked.
Conor jolted back in slight surprise, listening as Dante stammered through his words.
Dang, I knew I was cute, but I've never made someone forget how to speak before, Conor thought, absolutely feeling the second-hand embarrassment wafting off of Dante. Poor kid. Maybe I came on too strong.
There was an awkward silence, and Conor was just wondering if he should break the silence when Dante got there first.
"Oh, no, I've only been here a month or so," Conor replied, rubbing the back of his neck in thought. "I'm pretty new. I don't even have a Weapon partner yet." He shrugged, crossing his legs and leaning back in his chair. "Both my parents are - were - meisters, but I didn't join until just now because they wanted to make sure I could take care of myself." He smiled lazily. "Probably for the best."
He turned to Dante. "How long have you been here? I mean, obviously longer than me," he said, "But have you been on NOT missions yet? Do you have a partner? What's the school like?"
Conor didn't mean to ask so many questions, but there were a lot of things he wanted to know about Shibusen. Both his parents had retired from the miester life years ago, so their explanation of the school was filtered through nostalgia, and Conor didn't trust their recollections completely. His mom had been a doctor longer than a meister, and although his father had stayed with his Weapon partner until they hit DeathScythe, he had retired when Conor was about five so he could watch over him when Mrs. Sullivan was on call.
Their experience was valuble, of course, but Conor figured that asking a current student might be a source of more accurate information. In any case, Conor liked listening to Dante. He seemed like a fun guy, and in all honestly Conor wanted to see if he could make him flustered again. Probably not the nicest thing to do to a new friend, but Conor was just enough of a punk to find it funny.
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on May 6, 2014 14:16:22 GMT -5
Dang, Conor really was new. Even so Dante was a little surprised he hadn’t noticed him in that time, after all he did stand out a little. Then again, he hadn’t exactly been the most vigilant individual the past few weeks given all that had happened. All that aside, he listened to Conor explain his situation, an easy smile on his face.
When the questions turned to him, Dante leaned forward and let he front legs of the chair back on the ground. The blonde brought one of his hands to his face and leaned into his palm, gold eyes on the ceiling above as he thought for w moment. “Well, let’s see,” he started slowly, “we moved here when I was fourteen, so that would make it…three years? I didn’t start at Shibusen straight away though. It wasn't a good time, plus I was still kinda young, so I waited. I actually started attending around a year ago, same with my sisters.”
Continuing along, Dante folded his arms across his chest and looked back at the albino next to him. “It took me a while to find a Meister, but I have one now. Her name’s Tori, er, Victoria Pelham. We’re actually set up to take our last NOT mission, so we’ll be One stars pretty soon!” Dante couldn’t help the bit of excitement that crept into his voice. Partnering with Tori had been one of the best things to ever happen to him. They worked well together with her preferring to take charge and with him referring to follow her lead, not that they couldn’t switch the roles as they had for their previous mission. The Sicilian couldn’t wait until they were actually out in the field fighting monsters.
The next question made Dante pause again. What was the school like? That…was a very open-ended question. A bit of a thoughtful hum leaving him, the blonde stared hard at the notebook on his desk. Shrugging his shoulders, his eyes drifted back to Conor, “The school is different, I guess is the best way to put it. There are people from all over and with all different kinds of mindsets. There’s a little bit of everything around here, but I think that’s a good thing. I think that makes it easier for everyone to understand each other and work together, especially since we’re all working to make the world a better and safer place.” Dante finished with a smile, coming off the rather sappy tone with a bit of a laugh, “I don’t know if that makes any sense, but it’s how I see it.”
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Post by Conor Sullivan on Sept 14, 2014 23:35:50 GMT -5
Conor considered Dante's words thoughtfully.
"No, no, that makes sense," he said, after a moment. "I think. Congrats on almost making One-Star, though!" Conor added, clear admiration in his voice. He hoped his future weapon partner and him got to One-Star soon - maybe a little quicker than Dante did, though. Conor was impatient, itching to battle Kishin. The sooner the better.
But all he'd really learned about the school was that a lot of different people went to Shibusen and they helped people, something Conor could have guessed fairly easily. What really made him interested was the question in Dante's short biography.
"Sorry, gonna back up for a moment." Conor leaned back in his chair and lifted his legs to sit crosslegged on his chair, hearing Daisy's collar tags jingle as her head popped up to look at more students coming in. "Moved here from where?" Conor asked, genuinely interested.
He stuffed his hands into his sweater pocket as he waited for Dante to respond, and his fingers brushed the lighter he kept in there. He pulled it out and began to absently run his fingers over the smooth metal, liking the feeling of the metal on his skin and the small sounds it made when it ran over the tape on his fingers.
Conor's hands were always bandaged or taped up, usually from minor cuts he got training or to strengthen his wrists in the gym, but it meant his hands always looked a little banged up. He had bruises between his fingers from training yesterday - his parents had been very firm about him keeping up with martial arts. "Just because you're now in Shibusen," his mother said the night before classes began, pulling her blonde curls into a ponytail, "doesn't mean you can slack off. You'll be getting good experience as a meister but you need to keep training!" There was an unspoken agreement that she was nervous about him going in the first place, but Conor was glad she hadn't stopped him. He already felt like coming to Shibusen was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on Jan 26, 2015 14:24:15 GMT -5
Oh good, his admittedly sappy opinion of the school hadn’t been confusing. Just stereotypical and sounding straight out of some kind of movie about heroes and justice. One could technically associate Shibusen with both of those, but Dante still found it way to corny to apply given the people he’d met here with a little too out of the box for the usual cookie cutter definitions, himself included. The congratulations were a might soon, but they were appreciated regardless for getting his mind off the track of awful explanations. Dante smiled almost bashfully and sat up a bit more rather than continue to lean on the desk in front of him. “Thanks,” he said a little quietly, “It’s nice having all our hard work pay off in such a big way.”
Back up? Dante tilted his head and waited, watching Conor fix how he was sitting and admittedly smiling a little more seeing Daisy perk her head up to watch the other students slowly filtering into the classroom. The dog was going to end up distracting him all class long, but that was nothing new. There was always something. The eventual question was where his family had moved from, apparently. Ah, of course! He never had specified, had he? Dante was more than happy to elaborate.
“Oh, we moved here from Palermo,” he started off, quickly adding to it realizing that was a little vague if one wasn’t familiar with the immediate area around Italy. “From Sicily I guess would be the broader term, but Palermo is the specific city!” It was painfully obvious even in just two sentences how much Dante loved his home. There was excitement in his voice fitting for a child sitting up on Christmas Eve. Conor wouldn’t catch the light seemingly making his eyes shine, but it was there.
But that wasn’t the end of it, oh no. One did not ask Dante about where he was from unless they were ready for an earful about it. “It’s a beautiful city, Rome has nothing on it, I’ll tell you that,” Dante boasted, “It’s right up against the water, in some places it looks like the docks and buildings literally rise up out of the Tyrrhenian Sea.” The far more famed Mediterranean was on the opposite side of the island, but that was just another reason Dante kept to his list of why Palermo was better than Syracuse. “The weather’s perfect for most of the year, sunny and warm and perfect for being outside which is the only way to live in Palermo. It never snows but it rains in the winter.”
“It’s in a cove – well okay I guess there’s a few of them – but most of the city is in a part of the island’s coast that curves like a crescent. A big part of it is in this flat valley that’s right up against the sea, but there’s mountains kind of closing it in so there’s more of it at higher altitudes too built into the cliffs,” Dante tried to explain, attempting to be a touch more descriptive than usual for Conor. “I grew up in one of the older parts of town that had some more rustic looking buildings, old stone and stuff like that, but we were almost right on the water. My sisters and I would get home from school and then run down to the beach almost every day once our homework was done,” he said, a little bit of nostalgia slipping into his voice. Having gone into a little bit of an altered state of mind, Dante paused and rubbed the back of his neck, leaning back in his chair a bit. “Sorry if I got kind of carried away. You can tell me to shut up any time.”
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Post by Conor Sullivan on Mar 2, 2015 2:23:36 GMT -5
Conor closed his eyes and tried to imagine the place Dante described. He took a deep breath, pretending he could taste the salt on the wind, the smell of sea air, feel the sand on his feet, the sun on his skin. He tried to picture the rough stone of the buildings against his hands. He ran his fingers over his lighter again, thinking.
“No, no, I like listening to your voice. It sounds wonderful,” Conor said, opening his eyes. “Palermo, I mean. I can tell you love it a lot,” he added, his mouth quirking up on one side in a lazy half-smile. “The way you describe it kind of reminds me of when I visit my grandparents - I mean, they live in Sao Paulo,” he clarified, “Not Italy, but they’re by the beach, so I can kind of relate. Sort of.” Conor shrugged.
“It’s not my hometown, though. Anyways, when’d you move here? I can kind of guess you’re here for school, but you sound like you’ve been stateside for a while - correct me if I’m wrong.”
The room was filling up properly now, and Daisy was starting to get antsy. Conor could hear her sitting up, backing away from the aisle. Conor clicked his tongue and snapped his fingers lightly, and Daisy threaded her way behind his chair and slumped between him and Dante. She licked Conor’s hand, and he leaned over to ruffle the fur on her neck where she liked him to scratch while he waited for Dante to answer his question.
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