Grey Springs - Suburbs

You and Julian are on your way to Julian's house. It turns out he doesn't live too far from you, he's a simple bike ride away. You found this out because Julian came over to your house on his bike, expecting you to have one of your own; which you do not. You spent an uncomfortable fifteen minutes balancing yourself on the back of his bike as he rides you back to his place. When he stops in front of a townhouse sandwiched between two other, slightly larger houses, you have to quickly hop off as Julian tilts his bike to one side. It's almost like he forgot you were there, even though he clearly struggled carrying you both. Julian: "This is it. It's probably a little bigger than where you live, being on the main street and all." He looks at his own home, as if he's trying to think of something else to say about it. "But it's pretty small. It's just me and my parents so it's not like we need more space." He starts walking up the path towards the house, bike in hand. "Um, if that ride over was uncomfortable," he begins, without looking at you. "You can like, hold on to my back next time. But don't make it weird." He puts the bike against the wall of the house, next to the front door, then waves you over to follow him inside.

Grey Springs - Weaver Residence

You find yourselves in a small front room, to your immediate right is a narrow flight of stairs going up. Julian is looking up, he's uncharacteristically quiet. He looks like he's listening for something, so you stay quiet too. Julian: "I think they're still asleep. We better be quiet." After you take your shoes off you follow him up the stairs. You notice now the entire house is carpeted. Some of the steps creak softly under your feet, and you notice Julian's somehow made it up there without making a single sound. He leads you to a door at the end of the small halway. When you step inside you find yourself in a surprisingly roomy bedroom. It looks like a bomb of clothing has gone off inside. Julian: "Oh, I meant to clean that up, sorry." He starts gathering the clothes into a giant pile in his arms, which he then dumps into a hamper in the corner. "I usually spend time in the living room after school so I'm usually only up here to sleep. But my parents are asleep right now, so we probably shouldn't go there, with the TV and the wooden floor and all. Plus with the door closed we don't have to whisper. Don't talk too loud though! They're right at the end of the hall. Don't want to risk it." Julian gives you a slight smile, almost as if he's trying to reassure you his parents being asleep in the middle of the day is normal, let alone how dead quiet you two have to be. You can't help but give him a puzzled look in return. Julian: "Oh! Did I not mention? Both my parents work night shifts. They go to bed when I leave for school, plus they work weekends. It's kinda quiet most of the day, but they're awake in the evening, so we do eat dinner together. Well, it'S their breakfast, I guess. Anyways, that doesn't matter. What do you wanna do?" ["Wait, wait. You barely see your parents?"] Julian: "Well no, not barely. They're asleep when I'm in school so I wouldn't see them then anyway. I guess it's kinda quiet on the weekend, but that's whatever." He shrugs, then seems to become a little defensive. "What, do you hang out with your parents all the time when you're home? That's way more weird than doing your own thing." You've begun to notice Julian puts a lot of stock in what he, or others rather, might judge as 'normal' and 'weird'. You wonder why he cares so much about that. ["What is there to do here?"] Julian: "What do you mean?" He looks behind him and gestures at what you thought was a wardrobe. "I've got a bunch of games in there. If you don't know what you wanna do I can choose something. I've got a console downstairs but as I said we have to be really quiet if we play that." He hesitates for a second. "Well, it's not really mine. It's my dad's." ["You got any games?"] Julian: His face lights up slightly, and he nods. "Yeah! What were you thinking?" He walks over to a large cupboard in the back of the room. When he opens it you see it's full of boxes. Some of them are labeled 'books', 'comics', and there is a messy stack of colorful boxes, each holding either a board- or card game. "Um, they're all kinda old, so I don't know if you'll know them. I sorta inherited them from an older cousin." He turns around to look at you, suddenly he seems a little worried. "Unless you think they're lame?" Why does Julian seem to care so much about what's lame and what's cool...? You tell him you expected to just hang out, you don't have to play games or whatever else Julian was thinking. He shrugs, and sits down on the floor. You're sitting on the edge of his bed; you figure he doesn't want to sit too close. Julian: "Oh, okay. Um... Like, you just wanna talk? D-do you want something to drink, maybe? I just realized I didn't ask and just dragged you up here with no context." He rubs the back of his neck and avoids looking you in the eyes. His demeanor from the time you met and the time you've spent together in school is like a night and day difference from how he is acting now. You tell him you're fine; you're worried asking for a drink is just going to stress him out more. Julian: "Sorry if I'm being weird, I just haven't had friends over in a long time. Y'know, besides Ezra. But when we hang out it's not usually at my place." You make small talk in an attempt to relax Julian a little, and it seems to work. After a few minutes he jumps up and offers to get you a drink again. He returns with two cans of cola, once again without making any noise after leaving the room. While he was gone you had a look around his room. Aside from the closet in the back there are a few shelves with dusty trophies for one sport or another, and some photos of a younger Julian with some kids you don't recognise, and one lone picture of Julian with a dog; the collar that the dog is wearing is now carefully displayed in front of the picture. Julian hands you one of the cans. It looks like he already opened them before he got back to the room, possibly to avoid the snap-and-hiss waking up his parents. His expression is serious. Julian: "I wanted to ask you something," he says as he carefully sits down on the carpet again. He takes a sip before he continues, "how did you meet Temperance?" The have to try hard not to roll your eyes, and you manage to blink the urge away. Why is he so obsessed with her, you wonder? You know Julian likes Robin, and you understand that, but Temperance and Robin are very different girls. What's his fascination with the former? You explain to him that you've only met her once, and that she was talking to a bird. You leave out the three headed aspect of the bird, the fact she was talking to it on its own is strange enough for now, you think. This fact doesn't seem to surprise Julian, though. You ask him how he knows her. He turns red. Julian: "Oh, we also only met once. She hasn't responded to my phone number or anything. Not yet, anyway. I also first met her in the abandoned factory. It sounds like it was even the same spot you met her. I guess she likes hanging out there, maybe to talk to that bird...? She lives in a big ass mansion uptown, I don't know why she'd want to come to the most dilapitated part of town. But she's from a super religious family, so maybe she just wants to get away from them sometimes. That makes sense to me, at least." He absentmindedly flicks the plastic lip of the soda can with his finger as he speaks. "That day I was just there to check out the building, I thought it might be kinda cool to explore, you know, since it'd been empty for so long. But she was practically standing right across from the door I entered the building from, so that plan was short lived. I didn't know what to say when I saw her, and she just... stared at me. I did recognize her, her dad used to parade his kids around, being like, the perfect children of God or whatever so everyone in town knows them, but I forgot her name. She looked different from how I remembered though... So I couldn't really stop staring back at her. And then she suddenly walks towards me, and..." he hesitates.

Ezra Social Link - The Hanged Man 1

"Everyone left, there's no reason to go back." "I don't really see it as my hometown anymore." "Just to visit, maybe. I don't think they let outsiders move in."

Ezra Social Link - The Hanged Man 2

"I don't know, seems dangerous." "Hell yeah! I love endangering myself frivolously." Look at Ezra and shrug.   "If I meet someone I like, I'll see where it heads. I like to take things slow." "I did. I was dating all the time. I had multiple girlfriends." "My soul is white and pure. I am saving myself for marriage."