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Julian Social Link - The Star 1

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.
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Julian
"This is it. It's probably a little bigger than where you live, since you're 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.
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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.
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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.
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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?"

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.

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."

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.
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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.

"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.
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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.
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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.

"She kissed me." He says it so quietly you almost couldn't hear him. He bends the clip so far forward it breaks with a snap, falling into the can. "Out of nowhere."

He blinks rapidly and looks away for a second before focusing on you again, almost as if he's trying to reset his mind, away from the memory. "It wasn't a big thing or anything, I kinda tried to step away cos she approached me so suddenly but she was faster. It was just... weird. Who does that to someone they don't know? And then she said something. I don't remember exactly, it was weird, something about her tripping me up or something? So I just said 'what' and then she stepped back and said it wasn't time yet. That I should go, but I'd see her again. I was so weirded out by what happened that I did leave."

Julian takes a second to collect his thoughts, tipping the can slightly towards himself and shaking it lightly, as if he's trying to see the clip that's inside the drink. Then he looks back at you. "So I figure you understand now why I wanted to find her again. That time you met us at the ruins." You nod. "I wonder what she meant when she said it wasn't time yet..."
You spend the rest of the afternoon talking about your acquaintances and playing some old card games. Julian might be pretty different from you, but you can already tell you're becoming fast friends. You feel a faint bond form between the two of you.
[Grey Springs High School - Cafetaria] You sit with Julian in the lunchroom of your school. It is usually locked between classes in the morning, but it is opened up in the afternoon for anyone who for whatever reason can't or doesn't want to go home yet. The room is largely empty, though there are students dotted here and there, hunched over homework or looking at their phones. Julian puts his bag on the table and pulls out a book. Julian: "Ezra's got one more class left, so I usually make a start on my homework while I wait. I figure since you missed a week you got a lot piled up. You can copy mine if you want." He slides a notebook towards you labeled "Geography". You thank him; you do have an extra week of work and though you're not too worried since it's not that much to catch up on it is nice to not have to worry about it. Julian: "I can't guarantee I did all that well, but hey, it's better than having to do it yourself, right?" You manage to write down only a few answers before Julian turns to you and starts talking again. Julian: "Your old town, was it bigger than Grey Springs or not? I mean, I figure it was cos this place is like, a single street and a bunch of fields aside from the suburbs. I've been thinking, why would a cult want to take it over?" ["It was more of a small city. And it's not a cult, it's a corporation that's buying everything up."] Julian: "I've never heard of a company taking over a city though. Sounds pretty cult-y to me. Does that mean everyone in the city works for that company? That sounds like... Mackwellian, or whatever they call that." You know what Julian is trying to say, but you don't have the heart to correct him; and admittedly you're not entirely sure if you're thinking of the correct term yourself. "We just have the Murphies, and they're not so bad as long as you don't bother them. They act like they're God's perfect children especially now the dad thinks he's got healing powers or something but they don't picket funerals or tell people they're going to Hell unless you provoke them." Provoke them? You ask Julian if they've ever called him any names. He chuckled. "Yeah one of the girls, Temperance's older sister, she called me a whore once cos I said something about her dress. I thought that was pretty funny. Well, Temperance hasn't got that sister anymore I suppose." You wonder what he means by that. ["I like Grey Springs better already. My old town was boring anyways."] Julian: "What, even before the whole cult thing?" He thinks for a second, absentmindedly flipping the pen in his hand. Julian never seems to be completely still. "I guess it's convenient how everything here is super close together. I can go everywhere on my bike, or usually I could even walk it if I wanted to. I guess I just expect a bigger place to be more exciting, you know." ["I don't know. Maybe the town was on top of a ley line, or something."] Julian: "What the hell is a ley line?" You do your best at explaining what you think it is. "A vein of magic...? I thought you said this cult was like a business, I didn't think they would believe in magic. Whatever, I guess being weird is part of the whole cult thing." He taps his pen on his paper for a second without writing anything. "I guess even small towns have their myths. Ours is the Murphies ever since Mike Murphy thinks he can see the future or whatever. I'm not sure exactly what he claims, but people are coming from outside of town to see him now, it's pretty wild. To everyone here him and his family are just those hyperperfect God fearing people, you know." You talk a little more about the difference between your old town and Grey Springs, when someone entering the cafeteria catches Julians eye. He furrows his brow and sighs. When you follow his gaze, you find he is looking at Leander, who is sitting down at a table on the other side of the room. It appears that just like you two he is taking his free time to do some homework. You don't understand why this bothers Julian, so you ask him. He gives you an annoyed look before answering; as if it should be obvious to you why he dislikes Leander after having only known either of them for less than a week. Julian: "He's a huge snob. I don't even know him but anytime we cross each other in the halways he gives me this awful look. Don't think we've ever even spoken to each other. He wouldn't even know I existed if he wasn't in Ezra's class, so I don't know why he hates me." You tell Julian about the painting class your aunt hosts, and your first meeting with Leander there. Julian: "Of course he does something pretentious like try to invent a new shade of black. The goat head isn't really a suprise though, his family has a goat farm. Or was it a sheep farm... Are you sure it was a goat he drew?" You shrug. You're not an expert on the difference between a goat's head and a sheep's head. You're pretty sure it was a goat, though. Julian: "There's a lot of farmer's kids at this school, you know, it being a rural town and all. But most of them are regular kids." He takes another moment to think. You wonder if he's musing over other farmer's children he disapproves of. "He probably just dislikes me cos I like Robin too. But he couldn't have known that until I made it clear I wanted to join the occult club. Whenever they're not in class he's guarding her like a rottweiler or something, it's ridiculous. She obviously doesn't like him." He looks at you as if he's expecting you to confirm that you also think that Robin definitely does not like Leander 'that way'. You simply shrug. You both start a little when you notice Leander's looking your way; then he gets up and walks towards you. Julian: "Is he coming over here?" he whispers, sounding alarmed. You shrug once again, though you also feel a little unnerved. You do not share Julian's dislike of Leander, but even then there is something imposing about the older boy. He stops in front of your table and places his hands on it, slightly leaning towards you both. His expression is dark and he looks even more statuesque than usual. Leander: "I know what you three are up to." Julian: "What?" It's not clear if Julian's asking what Leander means or why he came over to you at all; the word sounds more like an insult than a question. Leander: "You joining the occult club. I know you don't care for what the club is actually about." He briefly shoots a particularly venomous look at Julian as if he wants to say more, but decides not to. Julian: "What do you know about if we actually care or not? You don't know us." Leander: His eyes narrow. "I see you loitering outside my classroom all the time. Even now you're waiting for Ezra to get out of class, aren't you? Don't you have any other friends?" Julian: "At least I have friends! I only ever see you following Robin around." Julian's face has turned red. He looks like he's about to attack Leander. You ready yourself in case you have to grab him to stop him; you don't think it's a fight Julian can win. Julian: "Besides, Robin's been campaigning like mad for new group members. It's only you and her, they'd dissolve your club by next semester if you don't get any new sign-ups, so you should be happy we signed up instead of trying to bite our heads off cos you're jealous or something." Leander: "Jealous? Of you?" he hisses. You feel both uncomfortable at his anger but also amused at how dramatic he's being. You're not sure what to say. "You don't know what you're getting yourselves into." He stands up, preparing to leave. "Ulterior motives be damned, Robin will approve your memberships. I just ask you to take it seriously. Don't do anything stupid." He walks off before you can respond. Julian rolls his eyes. Julian: "Thanks, professor. Weirdo." You ask Julian if it's even worth joining the occult club if he dislikes Leander so much; Robin is in your class, there has to be other ways to get closer to her, right? And besides, what about Temperance? Julian: "Not you too! Ezra gets on my case about this all the time. Have you never liked two girls at the same time?" You shrug. "Besides, I don't even know if Temperance likes me, since she said the same thing to you she said to me. She was acting weird, maybe she was just trying to make fun of me or something, I don't know. It'll be hard to avoid Leander while we're in the occult club, but I'll figure something out. Maybe you can distract him while I talk to her, or something."