thinkin abt how different akia was while he was in school. constantly feeling like hes gonna vibrate out of his skin. doesnt rlly wanna go home but absolutely doesnt want to stay at school so he kinda just. lurks in coffee shops and feels perpetually guilty abt not buying anything. he actually does his homework. its something to focus on thats not the continual screaming of his own mind. he hates being alone but doesnt know how to talk to people. absolutely the anime trope of Mysterious Classmate No One Knows Anything About. vanished for a year. no one really knows why. only one person actually talks to him, and she's just as intimidating as he is.
no one knows where he lives. supposedly he lives with a foster family, but none of the other kids from that house have seen him in ages, which is incredibly odd. there's mutterings that he's not fully human (correct), that in the year he was gone something else took his place (incorrect). after all, he looks so much different now.
he talks to himself sometimes, which is less... scary and more of a quirk he has. he never does it where other people can hear. he chews on pencils and sometimes eats paper and once took a bite out of a book. (he was mortified by this) he doesnt go to any social functions, he doesnt seem to have friends, he doesnt even respond to his name. (alexei, alexei! they say. he's been hiding behind that name for years and it still feels wrong, but he cant just tell people his true name. thats... practically a death sentence. or so he thinks.)
he looks at things that arent there, flinches at sounds no one else hears, and goes oddly still whenever anything is knocked out of place on his desk. his notes are neat and precise, somehow immediately well organized even as he skips from spot to spot on the page.
he fell asleep in class once. he woke up screaming and was absent for a week.
he doesnt like it when people touch him. someone only has to brush up against him for him to flinch away. most of the time he managee to make it look like he was taking a step away. sometimes he doesnt.
to anyone that bothers to observe him (lookin at you, kaeto), its obvious that he wants to get out. away from the school, hell, he probably wants out of the city as a whole. and with the hauntings getting more and more frequent, who could blame him? but he stays. hes always there in the morning, at his desk, his notebook and pen laid neatly in front of him. he sits, still as a statue, like something out of a book. he doesnt move until class truly begins, and then its like he was never still at all.
(akia knows he cant escape. the city has a hold on him. he could leave, but he would eventually return. leaving is an all too temporary escape. he'd be pulled back eventually, so why bother? he likes to lay on the roofs of buildings and stare out at the sky. the stars are far brighter than they have any right to be, with the light pollution, but he can see them just the same. he raises a hand into the air. maybe he could escape somehow. maybe, if he got perfect grades he'd get accepted into some far off college and find a way to break the hold the city has him in. maybe. the hauntings are getting worse. a new family of fae was recently banished from the enclave. he wonders if any of them would know his parent. if they knew his mother. probably not. he lets his hand fall back to his side. he should go inside soon. instead, he falls asleep on the roof.)
