You're an Odd Child

[Xavier Bolton]

[This thread is set roughly 13 years in the past]

There were many new things that had recently been dropped onto Xaviers lap. Many things he didn't particularly want to think or talk about. It was best to just throw himself into his new work. Once or twice he'd heard of the Wardens as a child but they were little more than old wives tales. Stories told to children by their mothers to stop them from misbehaving. Though the stories had done little to stop his mischief as a child.

By now Xavier knew most of the castle like the back of his hand. Between being a Guard, then a Knight, and now a Warden. Well, a recruit for all of a week now. There was one person he'd been told to meet with soon. Some boy named Sebastian. There had been a few young children being trained by the Wardens but he didn't assume it was all that common. Still, it wasn't as if he could go around asking just anyone if he could speak with a specific Warden. 

Instead he decided to find himself in the castle garden. Listening to the sound of birds chirping above his head and the quiet rumble of people talking near by. There was a moment of quiet he could have to himself but these weren't things he enjoyed. Not any more. Xavier pulled out a cigarette with his matches. He flicked the match to life off the bottom of his boot before lighting the cigarette between his lips.  It had been a habit started at first to simply calm his nerves but now the young marquis found it hard to stop. 

Sebastian Arcturis

[Sebastian Arcturis]

Putting it romantically, Sebastian had grown up living a fairy tale. None of it was as pleasant as it sounded.

It amounted to fourteen years of abuse lovingly termed as training. Wardens had never been old wives tales to the boy. They had never served as a warning. They had never been something to fantasize and play as when he was a child. They had been his life. His secret heritage had all but guarantee he would never have a childhood. But this was different.

Sebastian had grown up at the palace, the unfortunate product of an unimportant dead knight and a serving maid at the castle. So the story went. He had lived here more than most of the current guards had patrolled the stone floors. Tasked with odd jobs during the day, he also trained to become a soldier like his father. Some would call him dedicated. He would call it compulsion. While he still couldn't compete with grown men, he was a sound fighter for his age.

Growing up a Warden had done little for his social skills, however. What classical court education he did have he was forced to keep to himself most of the time. But even with all of that, true socializing was...odd. he wasn't the only boy under the Warden's wing. There were three others at the moment, just as mal-adjusted as he was. But they were friends with each other. Sebastian wasn't fun to tease anymore after he spent a week at the bottom of a well as punishment. The same quiet mannered boy that when in was not the frosty distant one that came out. He'd become a full Legionnaire after that, a year ago. While he was not old enough to go hunting alone, most Wardens didn't. Another year and he was certain he wouldn't have to put up with a partner.

The young man was keen to continue training for the day, but he had his 'servant' duties to complete. Today, that included moving a lot of supply crates from the side courtyard to the kitchens. One of the servant paths opened up at the edge of the gardens, exposing the young man and his cargo for a few steps before he stepped into another servant passage to complete his journey. Crate deposited, he retraced his steps only to make his way back with another crate. Sebastian did all of it with a sort of bored focus and without a sound, even from his footsteps.

His nose wrinkled faintly at the acrid smell of smoke but he only barely looked up. He was quite familiar with who that scent indicated. He had seen Xavier around a lot, as a guard. He also knew he was a recruit. Sebastian had been at his...'entrance ceremony' after all.

[Xavier Bolton]

"Why are you so quiet?" "Lighten up a little." "You don't have to look scary to be a Warden you know?"

These had been words he'd been hearing from the other men since his entrance ceremony. Though he didn't quite understand what they meant. It wasn't that he was quiet, he was observant. It wasn't that he was too serious, he just didn't feel the need to smile all the time. Some of the children had tried poking fun at him in an attempt to make him laugh or crack a smile but it seems his staring had startled them. They hadn't bugged him much anymore.

His eyes scanned around curiously until they landed on a familiar looking brunette boy. Xavier had seen him around the castle on more than a couple of occasions. He'd also noticed him at the ceremony. Not that they'd really talked before apart from some nods of acknowledgement every so often. Apparently he wasn't just one of the servant boys.

As he flicked the ashes off from his cigarette Xavier put it out before sticking the last of it in his pocket. He wandered over to where he saw the boy unloading crates before grabbing one himself and following after him. Though he did want to talk to him he wasn't going to interrupt the kids work. He was feeling fidgety anyway. Helping him unload some crated didn't seem like such a big deal. Though he did get a few confused looks from some of the other staff.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

Most Wardens were not loud or light hearted. Most of of them looked scary. There were a few normal people, of course. Ones with families and kids of their own. They seemed almost normal. Even more importantly, casual discussion about the Wardens was not common. There was no need to say the words when you were one of those that knew. They were a well kept secret. Not something to use to to cheer someone up.

The children raised in the Wardens were not 'playful.' They were bullies, in it for a smile themselves, not to see one on another. Growing up to be a killer didn't encourage them to be nice. Whatever children Xavier had been harassed by were the usual castle servant kids. Those gave ones like Sebastian a wide birth because there was always something wrong with him.

Sebastian paused when the man came over. He was a guard and a knight and nobility after all and that begged deference from the serving boy. He stepped against the wall, chin tucked to his chest, waiting for the noble pass. Except then he started to...help. He watched quietly, without moving, still holding one of the crates and avoiding eye contact, waiting for the noble to stop making a fool of himself so Sebastian could do his job.

[Xavier Bolton]

Xavier didn't particularly care about 'blending in' at least not when there wasn't a need to. There was one servant that quickly ran over to grab the crate from his hands. She seemed confused as to why he was doing their work but there wasn't much else for him to be doing at the moment as it was. It wasn't his shift for patrol yet, he didn't have a squire to train that day, the king hadn't requested him for anything. Still, he let the woman take the crate from his hand as she gave him a nervous smile. It looks like the boy moved off anyway.

He moved out of the way as more things were being brought in. There was a servant that asked if he needed anything but he simply shook his head. What he needed was work. There was the idea that he could go hunting but he normally went with Vance. At least he knew where the boy was now. And he'd gotten his attention.

He rolled the sleeves of his shirt up a bit as he stepped to a far wall. There were a few knights he recognized who smiled at him in greeting. He gave them a quick wave as he relit the cigarette he'd put out and took a drag from it. As they walked up to talk to him, or more at him, he gave them a fairly bored expression. Guess he would need to wait for Sebastian to have a moment.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

Sebastian didn't understand people. Servants, nobles...he pretended too. He was good at that. He watched the concerned servant for a moment and then with the noble no longer in the way, went back to work.

Nobles were even stranger than most people.

He didn't bother speaking to the man. He certainly could, if he wished to. But Sebastian hardly needed to bother with new recruits. This one seemed to want his attention however, for some reason.

The young man finished his work with the others and then made his way to the stables. Normally, he would habe taken a servant passage nearby but considering Bolton wanted something, he went a bit more obviously through the garden.

The stables were just as busy as any other part of the castle. But it was large enough that they could get some distance around them if necessary. Sebastian presented himself to the head groom who nodded curtly at his offer of services and instructed him to groom and work out one of the horses belonging to a captain of the guard. He slipped through the stable toward the stallion's stall, acquiring a few brushes and a hoof pick and halter along the way.

He leaned on the door and presented himself to the horse for inspection before offering his hand. He didn't know the horse's real name, but the staff called him Mountain, for his striking black and grey coat and upper half splashed a solid white. Like a snowy mountain peak.

[Xavier Bolton]

For a while he let the men talk to him though kept an eye partially on the boy. When he watched him walk away Xavier stayed for a moment longer before taking his own leave to follow after him. He'd watched him make his way to the stables and thought that'd be a good enough place to talk as anywhere else in the castle. He stepped into the stables without much of a second glance from any of the stablehands. He walked just past the boy to a horse a few stalls down that trotted closer to the door to greet him.

"Afternoon, Rain Dance." He stated softly as he pet the horses snout. There wasn't very much about animals he cared for. They were a tool at the very least. Horses were a little different. Large, powerful, playful, and dramatic. They sometimes reminded him of his siblings. He brushed his fingers through the horses soft mane, gently tugging out a few tangles on his way. It was easy to be more gentle with horses. They were large enough to easily take down a grown man if they wanted to.

He understood the boy probably still had chores to attend to but he didn't mind waiting. Xavier could be a patient man. He pulled a carrot from a near by treat bag as an offer to the animal who greedily took it from his hand.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

He had chores. A constant amount of them. If he wasn't training or being tutored, he was making himself useful around the castle. Idle hands were not something he was allowed. It suited Sebastian just fine, thought whether he was a man of action and therefore enjoyed being busy or being busy had made him a man of action, he didn't know. It didn't really matter.

Horses, like most other animals, meant little to the boy. He had never been allowed a pet and never would be and to be honest, he didn't understand the point. He did, however, that even tools needed to be cared for. He had stepped into the stall and was rubbing down Mountain's coat when he cause sight of the nobleman passing by.

Sebastian finished brushing that side of the horse, not at all in a hurry himself. Then he stepped out of the stall on soft feet, hands tucked into his belt. "Can I help you with something, my lord?" He asked, words quiet, only barely a question, and only just respectful should anyone passing by hear it. He had no idea what this recruit wanted with him. Training advice? Or did he want to pick on him like so many of the others? Most of the boys his own age didn't understand, and honestly some of the adults found him...strange in a 'too quiet and too intense' sort of way.

This time, his eyes met Xaviers, and while Sebastian was certainly much shorter than the grown man, his stance and aura and flat tone this time around seemed to take up more more space than he did physically.