The Reconciling of Outcasts

by Shadowsciver


Routine

Dusk

The school bell rang loudly as students erupted into the halls, eager to meet up with their friends at lunch. Dusk had been there for a month, and he had yet to make any friends. Which was just as well; he was horrible at it, and he wasn't even sure he wanted any friends. Friends had never worked out for him; not in the last world, and not in this one. School, on the other hand, was nothing more than just being taught various bits of knowledge, and he had had his share of that already. The classes were easy, and he could have excelled in just about every class. The exception however, was history. Dusk had learned more about this prison of his every day, but he was still trying his best to figure the place out. Which was exactly what he was thinking about when he ran head first into the vice principal, who had traveling down the hall, making sure the students were in order.
"You should really watch where you are going, young man," Luna said, brushing herself off lightly and looking down at him.
"Sorry, V.P Luna," he muttered, lowering his head respectfully, "It won't happen again." He kept walking, turning his forest eyes floor-ward and continuing on. How strange it was that she looked so much like an old friend he once knew, even going so far as to sharing the same name.
Dusk shrugged, chalking one up for coincidence and filing it away in his head, and walked into the lunch hall. He found his usual spot, a table near the corner that didn't stand out much. This was where he belonged after all; alone in the back of the room. Luckily for him though, no one ever paid much attention to him. He was fairly average looking; with his short, disheveled black hair, his grayish skin, common jeans, and a black button down shirt - which was unbuttoned to reveal a sky blue t-shirt - everything about him simply blended into the crowd. Only three things about Dusk actually stood out: his piercing forest-green eyes, the symbol on his shirt, which this world called 'yin & yang,' and the fact that he never seemed to be comfortable wherever he was. That last trait, coupled with a strange 'forsaken loner' vibe he apparently gave off, tended to keep others out of arms reach of him, outside the usual ignoring of him. He pondered his situation to himself, sitting in his usual spot as he pulled his lunch out of the backpack he usually kept with him.
"Alright, so what will today have in store for me? I only have one thing to make sure i keep doing anymore..." he thought forlornly to himself, glancing at the journal he took with him before his banishment.
"So, what in this place has changed recently?" Pulling out his lunch, he flipped through his journal, looking for a clean page, mumbling under his breath. "Spells, no.. Incantations, no... Magical augmentation, no... Research.. ah, here we go - observations." Flipping to a clean page near the back, he nibbled as he scribbled, taking notes on observations of how things worked and changed around high school. Considering that no one paid much notice of him, Dusk could gather information easily enough. A group of younger girls, calling themselves crusaders of some kind, were talking about how their song was coming along. Another girl was commenting about her favorite muffins to her friends, who were commenting back and forth about different genres of music, both too engrossed to realize the other wasn't listening. Those two middle schoolers, Snips and Snails, were stilling nipping at the coat tails with that narcissist, Trixie.
"Nothing much interesting ever happens anymore. Its all just routine, day in and day out. I wonder when anything actually new will happen.." He glanced around again, his mind flipping through mental folders.
"Oh wait.. There is still that new girl. something about her..." Dusk said, his voice barely catching his own ears, His eyes wandered to the other side of the cafeteria, landing on a young girl his age, with striking red and yellow hair. Sunset Shimmer was it? he thought, running a hand through his unruly hair. She had joined a couple weeks back, and won the crown of the Fall Formal easily, but something about her always seemed off. It was as if being the best just wasn't good enough for her, as if she had someone she was trying to prove herself too. This could be worrisome, but then, he was just supposed to be an observer. He wasn't tasked with being an interference - this world had enough to deal with without him messing things up. And yet... he still couldn't shake this sense of dread and uneasiness. So Dusk put his journals down and dug back into his meal, his eyes slowly wandering amongst the masses. Things would be happening soon enough. New things, old things, curious happenstances. But things, however mysterious, happened at their own pace, not his. That was the deal with dealing with magic, and if he knew anything, it was there was magic in everything, no matter how small an amount. He could wait, he would wait, even if just for a little while. For now, blending in and settling in to a routine would have to be his goal.