Atreyu was already turning out to be a little shit. How wonderful. He was 10 years old now, or at least had the approximate build of a 10 year old, but was really just as rebellious as someone much older than himself. Sasha had taken no real care to hide from him the fact that he wasn't like other normal children. Sasha had explained to him at a very early age that his father happened to be Mallos, who and what mallos was, and how he came to exist. Now he didn't outright tell the child "I didn't want you" but Atreyu came to understand this over time. For Atreyu, hugs had been sparse and kisses void of any real adoration, mostly done out of some social stigma. that pretty much held that he should show his son some form of affection. Sasha wasn't sure what to do with him, because Sasha had never PLANNED to have children EVEN by accident, because he was supposed to be BROKEN in the baby making department.

But that's what you get for boning Mallos.

And now you're stuck with Atreyu.

Even at 10 years old, his potential to be attractive was beginning to show, but then again look at his parents: Sasha, who was pretty much androgynous and beautiful, in his own right, and Mallos, who despite all his evil behaviors and actions was really quite a hottie. The combination was bound to bring attractive children, and Atreyu knew it of himself. He sneered at other children for their own mediocrity, even if they, too, were children of Mallos... Of which there seemed to be many...

Now, when the call had been made for an evacuation, it must be remembered that Atreyu IS still a child, and with his mother gone doing God knows what and himself alone in the Lab he was particularly frightened. Before the second curse hit, Sasha had entrusted Faustus to keep a watchful eye on Atreyu, but now with the bat gone Atreyu was panicky. When he ran outside, barefoot and in his PJs, he was quickly taken up among the flock and, somehow, wound up here at the Core. So, briefly, he was worried about Sasha, because in all the bodies and masses of people he couldn't see the recognizable form of his only family.

See, as much as Sasha resented Atreyu for being forced upon him, and as much as Atreyu resented Sasha for being a terrible mother, they were still family, and for a long time now Atreyu has been all Sasha has had, and the same for the small boy. His antics really didn't draw in any friends in the Lab because they simply were not similar to him at all. Then the crowd became too thick for him to see through with his height. He sighed, pushed his way through to the nearest wall and began the climb up before settling between the wall and ceiling and looking out over the faces.

Still no Sasha.

Atreyu felt something unrecognizable in the pit of his stomach, some heavy feeling of dread that he was a little confused by. It came, suddenly, with the dawning realization that the most popular place for Sasha to visit was the Silver Cove... As waves crashed and hissed outside the castle walls he wondered... had Sasha already been swept away? The look of fear in his eyes, for that moment, was genuine. Atreyu felt a strong, if abnormal, connection to Sasha. It was not the typical mother-child situation, but it was strong, strong enough that he was almost brought to tears right there. But he steeled himself, steeled himself in a way that no 10 year old should be able to do and his expression blanked to one of non-chalance, then became one of slight incredulous disbelief with himself.

Get real.

Sasha was far too cowardly about death to let himself get crushed by several tons of water. He would've flown off somewhere, right? Maybe he was just... on his way here... or maybe he'd grown suddenly noble and saved someone along the way... Pffft.

As the day wore on, and the shock rippled through the masses, Atreyu lingered on the wall in a corner, quite content not to be pushed or shoved or squeezed between anybody. He had looked at Adonis, briefly, with an inquiring expression, but Sasha still had not arrived. Of course, Atreyu was sure that Adonis was just worried about him pulling one of his stunts. Atreyu had a tendency to bite small animals with his fangs and watch what happened to them, or pull on people's hair from low ceilings, hide in the darkest corner of a room and scream boo to scare them shitless. Atreyu was restrained, at least enough, because really there was nothing he could do to shake this crowd more than it already was.

Boredom struck him, and he desperately sought any distraction from the absence of his only family (he had no siblings or a familiar, just Sasha) and the deeply unsettling sensation that was his ecological empathy. He hadn't felt it coming, but he could feel it now, weighing him down, an ache in his bones. He hated it. So, too distract himself, his fuschia eyes drifted among the smallest figures, which were the other children of course. He was less noticeable where he sat, perched, on the wall in the shadow regions away from the flames of the fire. Sure, he was cold, but he didn't feel comfortable with the large masses of people. If he knew Sasha was among them he might sit near him, in some proximity, but that was it. He stopped casting about when his gaze landed on another boy, about his age, who seemed just as bored, as frustrated, and curiously unaffected by the chaos, as Atreyu believed he, himself, was. He wasn't sobbing, shaking, trembling in a corner and whimpering for it all to pass. His discomforts were managable inside of him and other than that he wasn't really disoriented from the whole ordeal. He lowers himself carefully to the floor and moves to a part of the room where space is available to stand. as everyone else huddles in the corner.

He doesn't belong with them either.... He's always been a part of a family that barely anyone knows about. He didn't need to be telepathic to see that his mother didn't feel like he belonged in the Lab. The Labyrinth was full of normal people, people with one gender, and Sasha sometimes ostracized himself simply because of that difference. And Atreyu was different for having him for a mother, for living with him, uncontrollably separated from everyone else, even if it was just being socially separated.

It was like that here too.. He stared at the huddled groups as if staring at an alien race, and you could see that he shared no connection with them. Sasha was his only connection in this world. It was getting dark now, and Atreyu began to wonder if that one connection was lost forever... He turned away from them all, angrily kicking a wall to vent what was an overwhelming rise of despair. Damnit, don't want to think about it. He growled to himself, and within a moment the feelings were suppressed, everything pushed down again.

"Fuck all of this..." he hissed, fists clenching. He wanted to bite something, to see something else in pain instead of feeling it himself. He looked up, the firelight flickering in his fuschia eyes, illuminating them with an eerie glow, his black hair hanging scattered. His pajamas were dirty, a pair of boxers and a tank, and his feet and hands were tainted with dust and grime from his trip here and his hanging on the walls. In these sharp shadows of the fire he looked less like a child and more like the man he would grow up to be, the illusion of sharp angles created on his cheeks, the sharp similarly androgynous features to his mother, but his confidence would give them the equally manly presence that he possessed where Sasha lacked. After all, Atreyu didn't have a vagina.

I think that's a good note to end on. Vagina...