#i forgot i gave her central heterochromia

[weishaupts]

shes so,,,,

[your-local-uwu-artist]

fajkn accidentally sent a file that had an error on kaiya

excuse to share design notes that i also forgot

all of their hairs have a gradient! Suika's and Koko's get lighter and Kaiya's and Joyuu's get darker (sorta, Kaiya's is actually just a change in hue but it is the same change in hue I'd use to shade)

I tried to really unify and balance their designs, you know how in ddlc They all have design details that are balanced between each other or highlight differences? Monika's dif colored shoes and socks, both natuski and sayoris short hair and yuri and monika's long hair, yuri and natsuki both have hair clips monika and sayori have bows, sayori's jacket is open, i could go on and on: anyway I was inspired by that and included simmilar details

all of them have their hair up and some sort of hair accesory, Suika's and Koko's are both half up and pigtails, Kaiya's and Joyuu's are both in full. Koko is the only one without a hairclip, Suika is the only one without a striped sock, kaiya is the only one with her symbol in her eyes, suika is the only one with heterochromia (central heterochromia one side, she was born with it) Joyuu is the only one with their hair tied low. Koko is the only one without some additional clothing piece on her uniform, Kaiya is the only one's who's additional piece isn't in the uniform colors, she's also the only one with only one sock. Joyuu's the only one with a natural hair color (if you don't count kaiya as a 'redhead' ) joyuu and koko are the tallest and shortest, joyuu and suika at opposite ends with skin tone (joyuus actually so pale that I turned off the white background to make sure i colored it all) both joyuu and suika have white shoes, both suika and kaiya have mix matched shoes. suika is the only one who's shoes don't have a strap. joyuu and kaiya both have shirts/dress underneath their school one, joyuu's the only one without gloves, both joyuu and suika have pointed ears, suika is the only characters who's shape isn't represented in her hair, kaiya and koko have a different shade of teal used for them, kaiya's pink is the only warm color, wow this paragraph is getting long i'll cut it off now.

anyway! I really wanted them to be a diverse group, so all of them have different facial structures and body types. simmilarly you'll notice once i share them in other outfits that I gave them each a fashion sense that compliments their shape launguage.

kaiya is sharp and blocky, she's never drawn in anything high waisted, she has a very sturdy posture and stance, and she's drawn with some muscle on her upper arms, she wears a lot of turtle necks and loose clothes

suika is generally soft, however she is actually quite muscular, this is only visible when she's actually tensing/clenching the muscles, sense you know, a lot of people have abs but their not in ab mode 24/7. her feet are small instead in contras to the other characters, generally her shape launguage is very elegant, and soft. however her body launguage is vast, as she can be both calm and rested as well as intimidating and stronger. she wears tighter fit clothes.

Joyuu is simmilarly elegant, but blocky to contrast suika's soft and match kaiya. they pretty much always have a relaxed stance. unlike kaiya who has lots of sharp lines, joyuu is always drawn more seamlessly. she wears a lot of flowy clothes, that highlight his tall stature.

koko is round soft and cartoony noodle limbed, versitile in poses but generally leans towards more meek and timid body launguage. wears lower waisted clothing like kaiya (less strict on it though) both her and kaiya havae some of their fashion sense stolen from like, department store kids sections

anyway! I very much designed them to be a group, with the grey of their uniforms unifying them. lots of precure inspo in their designs

sharing ocs <3

i've shared kaiya before but anyway: some of this is a wip because this is essentially me revamping older ocs and I'm still reworking their stories

for example originally their magical girl mascots were little like orbs inspired by hanko-kun's haku-joudai but now they resemble teru-bozu

mini infodumps from left to right + design notes!

so basically their (yet to be named) story is a combo between a mahou shojo and an unidentified supernatural ... drama? Theres a few main parts: reincarnation exists in the world, the hometown/setting is called 'yureikikyo"(subject to change) and is home to a lot of graveyards and ghost stories. The magical girl characters are those that can see and communicate with ghosts and spirits. Their job as magical girls is to help keep spirits in check, moniter the balance between the two planes of existence, and help reincarnate souls that are stuck. Theres a bit more to it (like this weird side story thing that can be interpreted a number of ways, but is essentially a different story with different characters that are parrellls to the main ones)

kaiya!

the protag, I've shared her here before but anyway. Her color is pink, her symbol is an x and her bonus motifs are spiders and music

she's a new magical girl and is struggling with how the ghost world which was previously hers and hers alone being interrupted by the magical girl world. she spent a long time putting herself on a pedestal and socially isolating herself so the revelation that shes not alone challenges her worldview. shes sorta a jerk, but in a 'angsty teenager that is going through it and can get better' kinda way. She's depicted as cold-hearted, closed off and cruelly selfish with her peers. but as kind, cheerful, and caring when with spirits and ghosts. while she'd never admit it, most of her actions stems from anger against the universe. This anger fuelled source ends up hurting her as a magical girl

in the side story the character "Merci" resembles Kaiya. Who I'm not even sure how to begin to describe, she is one of a duo of characters who's premise is just 'a relationship so fucked up, like just manipulation and general horribleness from both sides'

Suika!

my beloved<3 she's the senpai magical girl, her color is green, her symbol is an upside down heart and her additional motif is skeletons and being hella attractive more traditional magical girl aesthetics like ribbons, pigtails, and hearts

She's also the adult of the group, I had to make up an imaginary school program thing so I could have her be graduated but draw her in the cute uniform, (basically I'm thinking being a small isolated town they only have a community college, so the post-graduation highschool program essentially provides students with additional resources for a higher education in exchange for assistance and work at the school)

suika's been a magical girl for a long time, shes at times can be a strict mentor. Shes pretty hard on Kaiya sense she sees her younger self in her and desperately wants to prevent her from downfall. she presents herself and is presented as close to perfect, disciplined, strong, responsible, and compassionate. But she struggles alot with her identity being built on her magicalgirlhood, and has a habbit of projecting on others and vise versa.

Joyuu!

the second oldest! his color is blue, her symbol a triangle and her bonus motifs are bats and flowers. Joyuu is a misfit that doesn't try to change that. She works at one of the local cemeteries and is softspoken and poetic. Their roles one of the ones thats changed most from the original so I'm still working it out. but bassically she willingly is sharing a body with a ghost. She's not as disciplinary, strict and mentor-y as suika, but unlike suika whos values are prone to falling apart with her emotions. Joyuu is very resolved. Their also transfem and nonbinary, (she/they/he) but the ghost he shares a body with uses they/it pronouns

joyuu is very reserved as a magical girl, she does her job well but unlike suika who really plays up the magical girl warrior aesthetic, Joyuu lacks these monologues of grandeur, their a lot more down to earth and logic based in their ideals as a magical girl. seeing it as a job where as suika really takes on the idea of this destiny of responsibility and heroics

koko

koko is the youngest, sorta too young. She's the tag-along little sister. (her 'first draft' actually was suika's younger sister) her color is purple, her shape a clover or flower if you prefer, and her motifs are black cats and kids drawings/arts and crafts) she's struggling with growing into her own person with her various role-models having such vastly different outlooks. she's sorta a mediator and provides a nuetrual perspective on things. all the characters are trying to preserve her childhood, while koko feels like her childhood isn't over yet

she's the least developed both in universe and out of universe: hopefully brainrot will hit so that can change tho

[avieelliot]

BASIC INFORMATION

Full Name: aveline rosemary fox-harker (changed her surname to elliot once she got to america)

Nickname: avie

Race: white

Ethnicity: french, german

Nationality: english (UK)

Age: 34

APPEARANCE & MANNERISMS

Hair: straight, chestnut brown, reaches her shoulders

Eyes: blue-grey on the outside, hazel around the irises (central heterochromia)

Skin: fair and smooth

Height: 5'2" (157cm)

Build: slender, soft

Scent: jasmine

Gait: leisurely pace, often stops to literally smell roses, or just stare at a pretty view

Clothing/Style: flowy lines, muted colours, soft fabrics (silk, cashmere)

Style of Speech: soft, light voice, but commanding. like you know you’re supposed to stop and listen.

Key Possessions: she has very little attachment to material things. her dogs are her life.

CITIZENSHIP

Social Status: well liked, but little known

Occupation: veterinarian / sanctuary owner

Education: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree

Residence: a quaint little apartment in a century home

PERSONALITY

Likes: animals, nature, good food, good wine, good conversation, walks in the woods, quiet meditation, stargazing

Dislikes: instability, dishonesty, greed, money, power, being told what to do

Hobbies: working at the animal sanctuary, volunteering at shelters, reading

Personality Summary: kind, altruistic, nurturing, guarded, stubborn, afraid

RELATIONSHIPS

Friends/Allies: TBD

Enemies/Rivals: Alessandro Di Natale, her ex-husband, most men.

Family: estranged from her disinterested parents and her long-lost brother

Romantic Interest: TBD

Pets: three rescue dogs, named Flora (a golden), Fauna (a husky mix), and Merryweather (english bulldog)

BIOGRAPHY

tw: child neglect

Nothing in Aveline’s life has ever been particularly stable, but the one comforting constant in her childhood was everyone always insisting that everything was completely fine. Her parents, devastated to be born a decade or two late to the hippie movement, dove headfirst into 80’s political activism - violence in the name of peace, or something along those lines. He went by Barkley Fox, she went by Buttercup Harker. They met during a riot, and they never slowed down.

Aveline herself was… a surprise, to say the least. Her parents were young and wild and free, but not quite smart enough to realize a child would change that. Or rather, that a child should change that. It didn’t change much for Buttercup and Barkley, who brought tiny Aveline to riots with them, smiling for the photojournalists, and reassuring nosy child welfare workers that everything was, as always, completely fine.

Sure, sometimes they forgot to pick her up from school until the sun had set, and they went on “vacations” to war zones, and she saw much more than any ten year old child should see the time they couldn’t find a babysitter and brought her to the Filthy Lucre tour. And yeah, maybe sometimes they went out and didn’t feed her, or they tried to cure infections with leaves and tree bark, or she missed a couple months of school here and there… but everything was fine, they had it all under control. She was a free spirited child, like them.

Needless to say, everything was not completely fine. Aveline wasn’t fine. She was lonely, and scared, and small. She was forgotten about by the people who were supposed to love her most. The only reason she ever learned what real love was, is because her grandmother (with whom her parents would often drop her for undisclosed amounts of time) had an animal sanctuary.

The animals were hurt. Wounded birds, orphaned squirrels, that kind of thing. They were small, and scared, and lonely. Forgotten about by most of the world. Aveline’s previously unused heart filled up with the love of these tiny helpless creatures, and she found her calling.

When she was eleven, another tiny helpless creature was dropped in Aveline’s lap. His name was Elliot Fox-Harker - her new baby brother. Their parents didn’t know what to do with him any more than they’d known what to do with her. But she was old enough to babysit now, they decided. So they left their oldest child alone to parent their infant. Avie was overwhelmed, and even more scared than before. Somehow, she kept Elliot alive - with the help of their brilliant grandmother. But she was a baby herself, and their grandmother was blind, and it took three years before anyone noticed that Elliot couldn’t hear them. He was deaf.

Aveline was fifteen then. She knew what she had to do. She called the NSPCC Helpline and reported her own parents for child endangerment. The people who came to rescue her brother ripped him, screaming, from her arms, and though she knew she’d done the right thing, to this day, she can’t escape the guilt of that. Elliot was the only person in the world who loved her and needed her, and she let him down. She loved him as much as she resented their parents, so when she moved to America, she changed her last name for him.

She was sent to live with family in Brooklyn, and really struggled to finish high school there. The distraction of her guilt and sadness mixed with the combined years of school she’d missed in her tumultuous childhood meant she was constantly behind... but she put all of her time and energy into studying. The other students in New York were interested in her - they saw her as a mystery of a person with a pretty face and a cute accent, and were fascinated - but she couldn’t relate to any of them. They wanted her to go to parties and pep rallies, but the only person she found herself relating to at all was the weird quiet kid with his walkman on.

After graduation, she went back to England and studied veterinary medicine in London, almost reaching the top of her class. Almost. Top 5%, anyway. But it was an incredible achievement for someone who statistically shouldn’t have survived childhood. She was on top of the world when she graduated... until she realized that she had no idea where to go from there. She was entirely alone in, and besides wanting to be a vet and not wanting to think about her family, she’d never had any real plans. Her mind reeled with images of herself turning into her parents - lost and forever wandering - and she panicked… until she met The One.

He was American - the CEO of his own company, a self-made man. He was gorgeous and charming and driven and best of all: he was stable. She figured the best decision she could make in her life would be to find someone who craved the same stability and authenticity she needed, and to be a team. The exact opposite of her parents. So when he proposed, she said yes.

And when every red flag in the world popped up and waved itself in her face, she smiled, went to work, and constantly insisted that everything was… completely fine.

She had a job she loved, her own veterinary practice in Portland, Maine, a big goofy dog named Flora, and what she thought was real love. She was happy. All the warning signs and nagging thoughts were just echoes of her parents’ voices telling her she needed to be free, and she shouldn’t tie herself down. She wouldn’t listen. She didn’t listen. For seven years, she went through the motions, comatose, hibernating, putting up with more bullshit from him than even her parents could carry. Then one day he came home from a business trip. He’d barely set his bags down when she said it.

“I know you don’t love me. And I know you never really did.”

She was talking to him, but she also saw her parents as she said it.

Everything broke, then. He broke, she broke, the walls that they’d both been carefully building, the personas they’d been curating, all of it, just crashed to the ground with a violent, angry, thunderous bang.

She tried to move on. After the divorce finalized, she tried to have hope, and to try again to find the stable, true, safe Forever Love she still believed was out there. She met a beautiful boy named Alessandro, reeling from heartbreak himself, and thought that maybe this time it could last. He made her feel beautiful, and wanted, for the first time, really, ever... and then he broke her heart.

She gave up entirely after that. She moved to Boston with Flora, adopted two more dogs (Fauna and Merryweather) and poured herself once again into work and nothing else. The animals were the only important thing - they could bite her, but they couldn’t break her heart. She was kind to people, but kept them at a distance, not willing to risk falling into the trap of love again.

Earlier this year, she was offered a job at Familiar Friend Veterinary Clinic, and moved to Salem. She’s has opened her own animal sanctuary for hurt/abandoned pets and wildlife in the area, and has even ventured to make a friend or two. She’s wounded, but in rehabilitation, and she’s sure she’ll fly again soon.

[secretoctocat]

placeholder name [teleportals]

excerpt from a story i’m working on

Dusk had settled over the campus about half an hour ago — all of the college’s typical personnel had finished their shifts and were briskly making their way through the parking lot to avoid the late autumn air that nipped at their faces, numbing their noses and making their eyes run. Nobody wanted to linger behind on campus because of the gestating snowstorm that darkened the sky and impregnated the clouds with a bitter chill, which was why Hadley did linger behind, as cars pulled away quickly and the last students boarded the city bus that had come to make its final stop at the campus for the night’s route.

As far as Hadley could tell, she was the only one left at the college. Any night classes that had originally been scheduled were delegated to online assignments or had been cancelled altogether. It was this solitude that she had craved. She did not want to return to her dorm room because her roommate, as nice as she was, had decided to stay at school instead of returning home for Thanksgiving break, which Hadley had hoped against as she’d enjoyed the prospect of having the dorm entirely to herself for a while. But since Kelli was currently in their dorm room playing Korean pop music videos on YouTube less than quietly on her computer, Hadley had meandered out of the student dormitories and through the cluster of administrative buildings until she reached the courtyard, replete with a bronze statue of an owl as its central fixture, drawing the viewer’s eye towards it as a reference to its tidy position in the center of the campus. Several concrete benches with ornate carvings evenly encircled the owl statue and dotted the courtyard, framed by a dense collection of cold, dark oak trees that absorbed some of the wind’s harshest currents. Once-flowering bushes lined every path stretching in each cardinal direction. When the holiday break was over, the courtyard would be teeming with students again, packed into the gazebos just beyond the owl statue and branching off from eastward sidewalk and the campus café’s outdoor tables to the south.

But for now Hadley was in the company of the bronze bird statue, caught in its fierce metallic gaze. It had been carved with such attention to detail, the groove of each feather, the way its talons gripped onto the bronze tree branch connected to a trunk that sprouted from the statue’s base, that Hadley felt like it could fly off into the sky. She had been so lost in thought, staring at the bronze owl statue, when she finally realized she actually wasn’t alone.

She hadn’t even seen or heard him approach, but what signaled his appearance was perhaps even more bizarre; he carried with him the brine-y scent of the ocean and the heavy, warm glow of enduring tropical sunlight. To Hadley, one moment there wasn’t a single other human soul around her by her own design, and the very next it was as if this strange man had approached from her blind spot without detection save for the beach’s aroma.

And he was strange. His clothes were inappropriate for the season: a tank top in the traditional pink, yellow, and turquoise colors of the pansexual pride flag, a pair of grayish-lavender skinny jeans sporting various holes and tears along the legs and thighs, some appearing to be the designer’s intention, most not, and tennis shoes that seemed a size too small. The only weather appropriate garment he wore was a striped pink beanie. Around his neck hung what Hadley assumed through the darkness to be an ammonite that pulsed with a gentle, if strange, aquamarine light. Finally, on his back he wore a knapsack made of an unfamiliar material, with a sewn on patch that said something in a language Hadley wasn’t familiar with — and she was a linguistics major.

Her first thought was that he was most likely homeless, her second that he appeared impossibly indifferent to the encroaching freeze, and her third that he was quite attractive.

She was unnerved by his sudden presence, but from his lachrymose gaze at the owl statue, she concluded that she didn’t actually feel threatened by him, only mystified. The more she studied him, the more she felt concerned — maybe he just wasn’t expressing how cold he felt?

He finally noticed Hadley staring at him, and in the dim haze of lamplight as he faced her she could see that he had heterochromia, one brown and one green eye. In the lowlight she could barely discern the dusting of freckles along his nose and upper cheeks and that he was not just tanned but Asian. Now he stared back at her, with an unreadable expression, and Hadley hoped that she hadn’t intruded on some private moment of his.

But the nagging worry that he was cold and didn’t have anywhere safe to go prompted her to ask in a voice she barely recognized as her own, “Aren’t you cold? Do you need a jacket?”

He didn’t respond at first, but Hadley could see his face relax a bit. She took a few steps forward casually, hands in her jacket pockets because she had forgotten to bring her gloves.

“If you need one, I can give you one. My dorm isn’t too far from here.” She slowly took a few more steps closer and noticed how long his dark eyelashes were. He seemed stupefied, not taken aback or offended even, but almost as if he were mentally absent, or alternatively, overcome with heavy and burdensome thoughts.

As Hadley closed the distance between herself and the strange young man, the first snow of the season (and of a blizzard that would go on to incapacitate the city for days) drifted between them. They were inches apart, standing together, and Hadley talked like they were old friends.

“What’s your name?” Hadley asked him. “My room is this way,” she added with a gentle jerk of her head.

Finally the young man replied quietly, “My name’s Kai.”

Snowflakes were catching on their hats.

“I’m Hadley.”

They began walking towards Hadley’s dorm room in a silence that was surprisingly not uncomfortable. The wind had begun to pick up and now snowflakes began to pelt Kai’s bare arms — it was subtle, but Hadley saw him shiver a few times.

Hazy lamplight projected the shadows of swirling snowflakes that plummeted and stuck to the ground in icy patches. Hadley’s boots had soles meant for providing traction on slippery surfaces, but Kai’s tennis shoes did not, and at one point he lost his balance and flailed for several seconds before Hadley managed to steady him. For the rest of the trek, Kai held securely onto Hadley’s arm as she escorted him across campus as it froze over beneath their feet.

When they arrived outside the east wing of the student dormitory buildings, Hadley fished her access key card out of her wallet and swiped them in. They took the elevator up to the third floor and when they stood outside the door to Hadley’s dorm room she said to Kai softly, “Wait out here for just a moment. It’ll be a lot faster if my roommate doesn’t see you and try to ask a ton of questions.”

Kai nodded and leaned back against the hallway, the sole of one foot perched against the wall and his arms crossed casually over his chest. Hadley pretended not to notice how tight his shoulder muscles were, or the gentle ripples of his biceps, and she slipped quickly through the door into her dorm room with another swipe of the access key card.

Kelli looked up from her computer that was loudly playing a familiar K-pop song by a musician that Hadley didn’t know to nod a polite “hi” before returning her attention back to her computer screen. Kelli began furiously typing something so Hadley took this as her cue to begin gathering the items she came here for. 

The first was a dark jacket lined with fleece that she’d purchased for $15 at a local thrift store at the beginning of the semester. The second were two pairs of gloves — a pair for Kai and the pair she had forgotten to wear earlier. The third took a fair amount of rummaging at the bottom of her closet to find, but was proud of herself for managing to procure the pair of snow boots that were too big for her that she had planned to return to the mall but forgot about ages ago. She wasn’t sure if they’d fit Kai, but from what she could tell his feet weren’t that large, and he definitively needed proper footwear. The fourth and final item Hadley sought was a small violet drawstring bag that contained a Pikachu print baggie filled with nuggets of weed, a small blue and purple pipe, and a lighter. She stuffed everything into a small messenger bag as not to rouse Kelli’s curiosity, waved goodbye to her roommate, and slipped back out into the hallway where Kai waited patiently. His eyes flickered to Hadley’s messenger bag, then back to her face.

He gave her a tiny smirk and said his first real sentence since he told her his name, “You’d think she’d go deaf listening to music that loud.”

“We’ve already gotten two noise complaints from other students,” Hadley replied with a laugh. She led them to the stair flight between the second and third stories and procured the boots and clothing from the bag.

“Sorry if the boots are too small. They were too big on me but I lost the receipt before I could remember to return them. Consider them yours.”

Kai sat down on the stair flight’s first step, yanking off the old weathered sneakers, tugging on the boots, and lacing them up. He stood up and donned the fleece lined jacket before pulling gloves over each hand.

“How do the boots fit?” Hadley asked, eyeing him and suddenly feeling self-conscious about it. She put on her own gloves as a distraction from how well the jacket fit him, accentuating the sturdiness of his shoulders and litheness of his overall build. He was a shorter man, Hadley guessed around 5 feet and 7 inches, and she herself was thin, with a slightly wider than average shoulder span for a cisgender girl, so it appeared her clothing fit him well enough.

“The boots are a bit snug but I think if I take my socks off I won’t be able to tell,” Kai said, removing them from his feet and stuffing them into Hadley’s messenger bag, noticing the small drawstring bag in doing so.

Hadley realized that Kai had noticed the drawstring bag and asked him lightly, “Do you smoke pot?”

“Oh,” he huffed a small laugh, as he came to the understanding of what was in the drawstring bag. “Yeah.”

She motioned for him to hand her the drawstring bag so he did, and she tucked it in her coat pocket. She only allowed herself a moment, this moment, to reflect on how easy it was to interact with this perfect stranger. Hadley was a more introverted person by nature, and she was particular about who she spent her time with, making it a slight challenge to befriend others, but moreso to maintain those relationships. Usually being around others was mentally taxing, even if they were friends, but so far tonight being with Kai only energized Hadley. The prospect of him being there in her near future made Hadley’s heart skip a beat. It was so long since she felt this way that it took her several moments to identify it.

Maybe it’s just a crush, Hadley thought and decided to push these alarming thoughts out of her mind.

“There’s a park nearby,” Hadley said. “Nobody should be there.”

“Lead the way,” said Kai with an ornate hand gesture, suggesting that Hadley go first and he would follow. She did, and he followed.

Snow was piling around the base of street lamps and in bushes and trees, cocooning the night in a cold, white embrace. Hadley and Kai exited the east wing dormitory, their breaths escaping their lips in ghostly puffs. They walked together in the darkness across the campus, their boots crunching loudly in the empty, expansive night.

Just when Hadley thought she should think of something to talk to him about, maybe the campus or city in general, Kai said softly, “Thank you for talking to me tonight.”

“Of course,” Hadley said. “You looked...well, cold and lonely.”

A few moments passed and Hadley worried that she’d overstepped a boundary as a stranger, but finally Kai replied, “I was.”

“I don’t want to ask if it’s none of my business but...what were you doing out here tonight like that, anyway?” Hadley asked tentatively. “Please don’t feel like you owe me an explanation—“ Kai stopped her by holding up his hand. A sad, tired smile crept across his lips. Hadley waited patiently for him to continue.

“It’s a lot more complicated than this really but...I guess you could say I had to part ways with a former lover.”

Her heart thumping wildly in her chest, Hadley slowly reached for Kai and drew him into a hug. She could feel his body trembling with quiet sobs. She let one hand run soothingly along his back.

“Do you have anywhere to go?” Hadley asked when Kai’s crying had begun to subside.

He rubbed the tears from his eyes with the back of a gloved hand. He seemed to think about the question longer than Hadley thought was normal, but finally he responded, “No, I guess I don’t.”

“You can stay with me,” Hadley offered. “Kelli won’t shut up about it for a while because she can be incredibly nosy, but she won’t complain.”

“Are you sure?” Kai looked doubtful. “Aren’t I...not supposed to be there?”

Hadley shrugged. “I say you’re supposed to be there, so really that’s all that matters. Also uh, it’s Thanksgiving break, so there’s like no one left on campus to care.” Hadley unsnaked her arm from around his back and stepped away a bit as to not overcrowd him with her offer and presence.

Finally, Kai began to nod slowly. “As long as you’re sure you’d want me there, then.”

“Yes, I do!” Hadley replied so quickly and with such enthusiasm that she immediately felt more than a little self-conscious. Something unreadable flickered across Kai’s expression, and Hadley could feel her cheeks burning even though snow continued to caress her face. A smirk broke the corner of Kai’s lips.

“How could I say no, then?”

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As Hadley expected, the park was empty. They trudged through the rapidly thickening snow across the field to a swing set that was in the early stages of burial beneath ice. They swatted the piles of snow off the swing seats and sat down. Hadley produced the violet drawstring bag containing the Pikachu print baggie of marijuana and began to clumsily pack crumbled bits of bud into the pipe. She flicked the lighter and took a hit, then passed it to Kai, who put his mouth to the pipe and inhaled deeply. Their exhaled breaths mingled and dissipated together in a chilly shroud of smoke. Hadley momentarily reflected on the fact that she had originally come out tonight for solitude, but instead had made an unexpected friend. It was one of those well-placed coincidences. Surreal. As if a single ion out of place within fate’s framework might’ve prevented their introduction.

Kai passed the pipe back to Hadley, and as she sparked the lighter again, he asked her, “So, are you from around here?”

“No,” Hadley replied through curls of smoke. “I grew up in Florida, actually.”

As she handed the pipe back to Kai, he asked, “What made you decide to go to school, uh...here?” Hadley could feel a secret hidden in the depths of this question, but couldn’t identify what it was.

“I guess I just wanted to be somewhere far away from my hometown. I wanted to live somewhere that is the opposite of where I’ve come from. So, when I got an acceptance letter from Granite Bay University, I figured Washington State was about as far away as I could get without leaving the continental United States.”

Hadley noticed Kai’s interest pique when she mentioned this. It was subtle, but he had leaned forward subconsciously and his eyes were focused on her intently. His expression suggested he was putting something together in his mind and subsequently arriving at a conclusion, but Hadley had no idea what that could be.

Just when she was about to question him about this, he said gently, “I can understand that.”

Hadley nodded and stuffed more bud into the pipe’s bowl before handing it back to Kai. She watched him light up, soothed by the warm glow of the flame against his face and the shadows that briefly flickered into existence along his cheeks.

He watched her watch him, her lips parted in subdued thought, and before exhaling his hit, used his forefinger to beckon Hadley closer. Her heart clattered painfully within her rib cage as she complied with his request, leaning forward just closely enough for Kai’s lips to barely brush hers. His lips opened just enough for him to exhale smoke into Hadley’s mouth as she inhaled softly, feeling her cheeks burn feverishly despite the plummeting temperature. She pulled away in embarrassment, knowing that Kai could see her glowing cheeks even in the murky, snow blanketed light of the street lamp overhead.

She felt dizzy. Light-headed in a way that made the rest of her body feel light, too. She exhaled the smoke from Kai’s shotgun with a smile she couldn’t suppress. She couldn’t remember the last time she was too giddy to stifle her emotions behind the barriers she’d erected at an early age and fortified over time. It was an unexpected relief, one that threatened to tap into a well of her tears. She let a few salt her eyes, glazing her cheeks with cold streaks, and wiped them away quickly.

Kai’s concern was immediate. He leaned over on his swing and said anxiously, “I’m sorry if I crossed a boundary, I didn’t mean to upset you—“

But Hadley shook her head and held up her palm to stop him mid-sentence, her smile widening even as she dried her cheeks.

“Don’t worry. They’re happy tears.”

“Are you sure?” Kai’s face was slightly flushed with concern and a touch of embarrassment for daring to act so boldly. He leaned his swing set closer, taut on its chains, but still not too close to her. “Because the last thing I’d want to do is hurt you.”

“Trust me,” Hadley said gently, “you didn’t hurt me.” But it did make her wonder why Kai was able to make her feel this way. She felt like she was on the verge of understanding why. When was the last time she’d felt this way? Had she ever felt this way before? She wiped away the streams of tears that chilled her face with the back of her jacket sleeve.

“I guess it has just been a while since I’ve been this close to someone,” Hadley finally admitted, hoping to convince Kai that he was free of transgression. “I know we just met, but I feel like I’ve known you my whole life.”

“I get that a lot,” Kai said with a laugh, but something about it sounded hollow. Hadley was about to follow up on this, but instead Kai rose from the swing set, cutting off Hadley’s thoughts, and asked, “Want to walk and smoke? It’s too cold sitting here.”

Hadley nodded at his suggestion and pulled herself to her feet. Normally, walking around and toking in public made her anxious, but the campus was deserted besides herself and Kai.

As they meandered slowly back towards the eastern wing of dormitories, Hadley’s mind flitted back to what Kai had just said.

“So, you’re the kind of guy everyone feels like they’ve met before?” she asked, venturing to pry only a little bit.

All the same, Kai’s body tensed subconsciously. He rubbed the back of his head nervously, already letting his facade falter.

“You could say that,” Kai eventually replied. “I guess I just have that sort of face, huh?” He chuckled softly, unconvincingly.

“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Hadley said anyways, despite her misgivings. “Let’s head back to my place for the night. This cold weather is exhausting.”

He’s definitely hiding something from me, Hadley thought as they finished off the last of the weed in the pipe’s bowl and she returned it to the drawstring bag. We just met so it could honestly be anything...but he’s definitely in on something that he’s not telling me.

Hadley wondered what that could be for the rest of the night.