Excerpt: The affairs of Gods/Tarot/Une petite histoire d'amour/Cinnamon Swirl

the beginning of 'cinnamon.' we've established that i don't capitalize. sorry.
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antony cosa had never been a particularly brave person. he had always prided himself on his theory that it was better to run away than to stay and be eaten by whichever tiger happened to be attacking the village that day. the fact that tigers very rarely attacked dawn valley was of absolutely no importance. nor did he care much about the things people told him when they wanted him to be braver, things like 'you're only young once,' or 'when i was your age, insects were the size of griffons.' antony wanted to grow up as quickly as he could, and he did not much care what had happened when his parents were young. he had not been areound then, and he was glad for it.

unfortunately for antony, being brave was a key item in the toolbox of the young men of dawn valley. at nineteen, the fact that he was afraid to kiss girls and did not want to try dancing naked in the main square made him something of a social pariah. not a complete one -- antony had a handful of friends, and was liked well enough by most of the people he met -- but he was certainly not invited to parties or taken on dates or brought along to help entertain the guests. antony did not much care. in fact, he rather enjoyed his solitude, in an odd way. he did not much care for people, and thought that, on the whole, his being alone much of the time was a benefit. as long as he had his few friends, antony cosa was happy.

thus, it was quite understandable when he reacted badly upon being told that he would have to suddenly enter a prestigious university, one that none of his friends planned on attending, and one in a city he had never heard of. where in the name of the Lady's Lamp was Movka? the answer that it was out of the country did nothing to sooth antony's nerves. he did not want to travel outside of tian. he did not want to leave dawn valley. he did not even want to go to university! none of his friends were going, and antony, as has been established, would rather die than leave his friends.
unfortunately for him, dying was not an option at this point in life, and the only thing antony could do was pray to the Lady that time passed slowly. the gods being the perverse creatures they were, it simply seemed to fly by even more quickly than it would have otherwise. antony decided never to pray again, something he quite promptly forgot the next time he needed something for which he could not ask his parents.

the train ride to movka took the better part of two days, leaving antony exhausted and cranky. he hated traveling on trains. granted, it was better than traveling on foot or, heaven help us all, by horseback, but even so, he hated it. it made him motion sick. antony hated motion sickness, and did not usually suffer, but trains were a particular evil. no wonder he hated traveling with such passion.

however, as the train screeched to a halt and antony was lurched bodily into the seat in front of him -- thankfully empty -- he was thinking about more than his stomach. or, rather, he was thinking of his stomach, but motion sickness had very little do to with it. antony was frightened. indeed, he was more than frightened. he was terrified. and who could blame him? antony, the shy, cowardly child of privilege from the capital city of tian, had just been shipped off to a school in the absolute middle of nowhere and told to sink or swim. and antony had never been taught to swim.