"Consider yourself lucky to have had a time when you enjoyed school." This time the dryness was all for himself. Edmund envied him those years of having close companionship, trust, protection, stimulation, all at his fingertips. A Blood for a brother, and a popular one at that, had not been the same thing at all. He was given begrudging berth because of that reputation, once they were at the same school, but it did not invite any further kindness or camaraderie than that. And that wasn't even taking into account those years of relentless bullying and pressure to bully in return. Thank the gods those days were behind him.
At least it was a feeling he could easily understand in Ienzo. Edmund wondered absently if he would have taken that bargain, a year of feverish learning and exchanged attentions, for two years of hollow loneliness. When it came down to it, how much different was it from his own predicament? He'd gotten far more than a year - fifteen years, a month, six months - and now came the time to pay the piper, with people who could not possibly begin to understand him, and lessons finished in minutes, leaving him hours of unfilled time to reflect, remember, want. Painfully bored and lonesome was not such a bad descriptor.
One corner of his mouth lifted in acknowledgement of the compliment. "My goal in life, to not be boorish and juvenile." The scrutiny turning back to himself, now...Edmund blinked, caught off guard. "Do I? I suppose I'm lucky not everybody has your sharp eyes, then. I'd rather not be...noticed...in a place like this. Which is why I suppose I found you so disconcerting."
He was sensible of the diversion, deliberate on Ienzo's part, although he wasn't sure what to make of the arms slung about his shoulders. "I'm afraid my methods consist mostly of not having been part of a high-profile society of scientific geniuses and misfits," Edmund commented, with a wryness that kept his tone light. "Camouflage by omission. But I shouldn't mind forming a private club, very exclusive you know...something for the Preservation and Mutual Well-Being of Precocious Young Minds." Absently, he let his fingers curl around a hip on each side, fingertips a few inches apart across the breadth of Ienzo's pelvis bone. He had turned a consciously blind eye to any of the more questionable aspects of the young man's affairs, content to accept it as something more star-crossed than sordid. He couldn't find it in him to judge him for it.
"I'd welcome the chance to do more than merely survive, here. It is a shameful waste of talent, just getting by." Edmund peeped thoughtfully at the would-be wunderkind. "Even if the others don't know. Especially if they don't know."
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Date: 2017-02-09 12:26 am (UTC)At least it was a feeling he could easily understand in Ienzo. Edmund wondered absently if he would have taken that bargain, a year of feverish learning and exchanged attentions, for two years of hollow loneliness. When it came down to it, how much different was it from his own predicament? He'd gotten far more than a year - fifteen years, a month, six months - and now came the time to pay the piper, with people who could not possibly begin to understand him, and lessons finished in minutes, leaving him hours of unfilled time to reflect, remember, want. Painfully bored and lonesome was not such a bad descriptor.
One corner of his mouth lifted in acknowledgement of the compliment. "My goal in life, to not be boorish and juvenile." The scrutiny turning back to himself, now...Edmund blinked, caught off guard. "Do I? I suppose I'm lucky not everybody has your sharp eyes, then. I'd rather not be...noticed...in a place like this. Which is why I suppose I found you so disconcerting."
He was sensible of the diversion, deliberate on Ienzo's part, although he wasn't sure what to make of the arms slung about his shoulders. "I'm afraid my methods consist mostly of not having been part of a high-profile society of scientific geniuses and misfits," Edmund commented, with a wryness that kept his tone light. "Camouflage by omission. But I shouldn't mind forming a private club, very exclusive you know...something for the Preservation and Mutual Well-Being of Precocious Young Minds." Absently, he let his fingers curl around a hip on each side, fingertips a few inches apart across the breadth of Ienzo's pelvis bone. He had turned a consciously blind eye to any of the more questionable aspects of the young man's affairs, content to accept it as something more star-crossed than sordid. He couldn't find it in him to judge him for it.
"I'd welcome the chance to do more than merely survive, here. It is a shameful waste of talent, just getting by." Edmund peeped thoughtfully at the would-be wunderkind. "Even if the others don't know. Especially if they don't know."