FREAKS OF NATURE | OPEN

  For the first time since he had arrived on the island, Alex had found himself out and about without a sibling. Aimery had finally decided to go back to work and Mel had, well, business to attend to. He hadn't messed with the older Pluto boys that much. Now, he had time to kill and had decided that finding lunch would be a good plan of action.

Grabbing a coke and a slice of pizza, two things he had missed in the underworld, Alex started looking for a table to sit at. Every single one seemed to be taken up and he didn't recognize anyone present. Finding a random seat open, he looked at the person on the other side and smiled. "Mind if I sit here? Everywhere else seems to be full."

Octavia had her arm wrapped around a large Styrofoam cup and her forehead laid against the surface of the table. When the voice intruded her thoughts, she sat up and made eye contact with the boy...man who had spoken to her. She opened her mouth to respond but no words came out. She just starred at him for longer than appropriate and finally said, "Alex?"

Alex barely had the presence of mind to set his tray down before trying to stammer out a response. Of all the places, of all the people...he hadn't expected to just randomly run in to her here. "Tavie? Is it really you?" Aimery had told him that she was still missing, so how was this even possible? "I just...I can't believe it." Then again, Alex didn't have much room to talk. From what he had heard, just about everyone knew that he had died. Very few of them knew that he was back though.

She didn't really know what to say. SHe jumped out of her seat and wrapped her arms around his neck with a laugh, "Thank gods, you have no idea how crazy the last five years have been for me." She sighed and sat down again, "Hey, Mel told me you were..." She frowned, suddenly realizing that the situation was a little weird.

"Dead?" He supplied, sitting down across from her with a nervous smile. "I'd say that tales of my demise were greatly exaggerated, but they weren't. What Mel told you was the truth. It's a long story and she only found out herself, very recently." Taking in what she said, Alex frowned slightly. Whatever had happened, it sounded like they needed to talk it out themselves. The siblings were not going to help this time around.

"Alright, I tell you what. Let's take five minutes to try and eat lunch like two normal kids and then we run off to figure out what crazy messed up crap we've gotten ourselves into." He wanted to know what she meant, but he doubted that she wanted to talk about it in a room full of strangers. Probably less than he wanted to explain to her what had happened to him around these people.

Octavia grinned and nodded, "Deal." She sat down and  started in on her food again, realizing it had gone cold while she had been moping. Despite that, she dug in and ate as quickly as she could without looking completely gross. As she opened her mouth to speak again, a girl ran up behind her and hugged her, "Sophie!" She squealed, "You're out of the hospital." The girl was from one of Tavie's classes, but she couldn't remember exactly which one. It was hard remembering anything these days, "Yeah..." Octavia looked back at Alex and then to the girl who apologized for interrupting and disappeared into the crowds, "Yeah..." Tavie said again, putting her forehead back on the table.

"Sophie? Hospital?" Alex asked slowly as the girl walked away. Alright, food was no longer interesting. Something was up. "Tav, are you okay?" Standing up, he grabbed both trays in one hand before offering the other to her. It looked like it was time to go, at least from where he was standing. Things got stranger and stranger the entire time that he was here. Was anything going to start making any sense? It didn't look like it any time soon.

Octavia groaned, not sure she even wanted to talk about it again. But then, maybe Alex would have some insight for her that no one else seemed to. After all, everyone else was either way too interested or hated her guts for leading the Titans to Concordia. Of course, she didn't know of her involvement, but that didn't matter. She was a target now. She stood up and ignored the hateful stare she got from a kid a few seats down from where she was sitting.

She followed Alex out of the cafeteria and nodded slowly, finally in a somewhat private environment, "Yeah, I have been living a lie, apparently." She sighed, sifting through the double memories that resided in her head, "For the last five years my name has been Sophia and I recently went into the hospital because the mind barrier the Titan's put up finally broke."

Alex sighed, running his fingers through his hair. What was he supposed to say to that. "We couldn't just have gone on a five year vacation, could we?" He observed with a sarcastic smile. "Do you want to tell me what happened, or would you rather leave it alone?" Hell, the only person who knew his whole story was Mel, and apparently she wasn't sharing with the rest of the class. Otherwise, Tav would have known. For some reason, that pissed him off quite a bit, though the last fie years of living with Persephone had taught him to mask it well.

Octavia buried her face in her hands and shook her head, "It's not that it is sad or anything." SHe frowned, "I mean, I guess maybe it is. Now that I'm Octavia." Sighing she shrugged, "It's not like I was even aware of the torture or anything. I honestly believed I had been living with two brothers and a really awesome family my entire life until like last week. Then suddenly I'm two people."

"Well...I'm not sure how to respond to that. I'm glad you didn't know about it though. That would've been...there just aren't words Tav." Alex was concerned, but he didn't let that show all the way through. "How are you holding up though? All the craziness with the two lives aside, it still has to be rough just showing up at this place. It's a freak show." Hell, the only reason he had left the house today was because he needed food and couldn't find the community kitchen. Mel's place was locked up tighter than anything he had ever seen, so sustenance was not coming from there while she was at work.