Archive World of Darkness: The Academy - Chapter 9: Everyone's Dirty Underwear

[Atomicweasel]

Wait, Ravi! The words died unspoken. She reached for Ravi’s hand as it slipped away from her shoulder, but he was already through. She took a half-step after him and then Sean’s wide shoulder’s brushed past her arm, and he too was gone into the other-dimensional darkness of the Door.

Mari gulped. Okay, Mari, moment of truth. Here you go. One two... the Door stood before her, its darkness a solid thing. Looking around at the faces of the other students, Mari wondered if anyone else felt as scared as she did. She licked her lips and they felt dry and chapped and she was shivering and couldn’t get warm. She wished for Ravi’s fierceness, or Sean’s courage, or even Ryan’s attention deficit disorder. Donkeys were supposed to be better at crossing dangerous trails than horses; Mari remembered reading that somewhere. In a National Geographic at the dentist’s office. The article had been about Yellow Stone National Park. She distinctly remembered the Hello Kitty Band-Aid on her finger. It kept catching on the side of the pages when she turned them. Be dumb like a donkey. Mari willed herself. But it wasn’t working. Try as she might to empty her mind of any thought, Mari kept imagining the worst: stepping through the Door into an endless black free-fall, screaming all the way down; or jumping through only to find the Caramels waiting for her, evil-eyed and grinning, throwing themselves at her with tooth and claw, like a pack of slavering animals. Stop it!

“Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.” Mari whispered to herself, clasping her palms tightly together and squeezing her eyes shut. “Amen.” And she jumped through the Door behind Ravi and Sean.

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

[Sylvia Dorn]

Sylvia watched the gradual procession into the void beyond the Door, and as she did, two feelings came to the fore.

Deja vu was strong here. She knew she'd seen this before, even if she couldn't remember it clearly. Had she already been to the world that supposedly lay on the other side of the nothingness? Or other worlds? Her gut told her, firmly and undeniably, "YES".

But contending with that was a feeling of helplessness. Her students, her charges, were making their way here with little guidance or protection, and it caught up something deep within. As Sean passed through into the space beyond, followed quickly by Mari, she looked around at the remaining students, all her senses on high alert. She could hear their heartbeats, smell a hint of what was mingled excitement and fear. And there was nothing she could do to protect them. At least, not here. But on the other side....

"If you'll excuse me, please." The teacher stepped in front of the darkness, hesitated but for a moment, and then stepped through.

[SalmonMax]

Renata stiffened with surprise as Sylvia pushed past her and walked through the Door before her. Okay so she had hesitated a little, but...

Damn it, I'm not letting them do this without me! I'm not letting her go in without me!

Mouth set in a resolute, stubborn line, she clenched her fists and marched through the portal. She had no prayers to offer for her own salvation, and she wasn't sure if that made this braver, or more cowardly. In the end it just was; resisting attempts to categorize the experience. Like losing her virginity, there had never been a moment like this that Renata could remember to compare it to...and no matter how many she times she might pass through it later, it would never be THIS time again.

[Micah]

Micah put down the duffel bag, sighing as several people beat him through the Door. He searched through the bag and pulled out his baseball bat. He re-zipped the duffel, picked up the bag and the bat, and slowly made his way towards the Door.

Before he walked through the door, Micah looked over his shoulder at the remaining students and others, "Let's not keep the others waiting too long. Who knows what's over there."

He walked through the Door and vanishes.

[Frida Ricci]

Frida had made her way over with Ravi and Autumn, giving the ghosts and Reaver one final glance as she left. She hadn't ever gotten around to answering the question regarding her ability to see the spirits that Reaver had posed to her, although it had almost been more of a statement. She didn't know if she'd done anything to gain this ability or not - she certainly didn't remember doing so, but that obviously wasn't much to go by these days. She was also a bit curious as to how a ghost would be an efficient "guard", and debated briefly in her head finding the man afterwards and talking to him about his ability. But that was a question for another day, and as she followed Ravi and Autumn towards Lancaster, her thoughts turned back to the previous night's rejection. She hadn't even noticed she'd been watching Ravi until he caught her looking, and she'd shifted her gaze as soon as she realized it, though she couldn't suppress the faint blush that colored her cheeks in embarrassment.

Stop being foolish. You already know you can't be involved anymore, you'll only embarrass yourself by staring. Don't run off the only real friend you've ever had by acting like an enamored fool, Frida.

She said nothing on the walk over, allowing Autumn and Ravi to make casual conversation, and watched with curiosity as the door was opened. Stepping forward to walk through it was less of a traumatic experience for the young artist. Perhaps, because of her normally vivid memory, her subconscious recalled going through this door before, in order to meet these very same women. But she felt no fear as she watched Ravi step through, or anyone else after her. Indeed, it was only because she found herself standing in front of the rest of the crowd that she realized it was probably time that she went through herself. She stepped up to the door, her eyes tracing the frame and studying the empty blackness curiously. She reached forward, slowly moving her hand into the doorway to see whether she could feel the transition. How long she lingered there she didn't know, until finally she heard someone speak from behind her.

"Um.. Frida?"

"Oh - yes. Sorry."

And with that, she stepped through the Door, following her teacher and her fellow students into another world.

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan stood before the door for a moment and frowned. There was something very weird about the door, and about the space the door occupied. He walked forward, following the others, and felt the odd thickening of the world, the meeting place, the boundary of this world with the next, and then the distinct otherness of the world beyond. Hesitantly he pushed through and while he could not feel it he could sense the barrier of his world first stretching and then parting as he pierced it. For an instant he was caught between the layers, and then he was through and parting into the barrier of this other place. He emerged and shivered. "That was very weird," he said, trying to dismiss the odd feeling that crawl down his spine.

[Dawn OOC]

Ravi stepped forward in the darkness, only to stumble into something cold that hit him about the knees. He recalled something about mountains as his exposed skin began to complain of the cold. Blinking, his exceptional eyesight gathered what little light there was and began to look around the area. All he could see was trees and snow, and the Door behind him. The ‘door’ was a flap of skin hanging from wooden frames.

The skin flipped to the side and a form came out. He wasn’t sure which one of the girls it was but he was sure it was a girl. It was too dark to make out her features. The statuesque woman pulled off her backpack and started to rummage around. After her, a slew of people followed, some of who Ravi could recognize by form or scent. The last through were Isaac, Swan, Rosa Autumn, Lucia and Ahvia. The avian out-worlder made sure that the Door was secured behind them before she crossed through.

“Finally!” the girl searching through her backpack declared, standing up and turning on a maglite. Ravi found himself staring at a lovely woman with black hair, blue eyes and Sean’s clothing. She wasn’t paying any attention to him – she was staring down at herself with horror.

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

"Hrrm." The noise was part 'hmm', part strangled chuckle. Ravi's eyes gleamed eeriely in the reflected illumination of the maglight, their elongated pupils contracting to vertical slits.

"Sean?" Ravi asked, just to be sure. It smelled... not like Sean. Not quite. The hormones were different.

"Whuhuhhhh...." Sean(?) said, looking down at the impressive rondeurs stretching out the front of his/her top. Ravi inwardly remarked that that was a very Sean reaction. He grinned, white teeth flashing. Were some of them longer and sharper now? It was hard to tell in the flashlight's wavering beam.

"Well put." the nobleman said, enjoying himself immensely at the other's expense. He felt sharper here, more himself. He looked at the others as Sean-ette wavered in horrified fascination. "Anyone else picked up some extra naughty bits? No dangling participles to balance things out? Ahh, well." His grin became wide enough that, had he turned invisible, it wouldn't seem strange for the grin to be left behind.

"Congratulations!" he told Sean-ina jovially. "It's a girl!"

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"Fuck you, Ravi!" Sean growled... tried to growl - his voice had risen several octaves into a clear and undeniably feminine alto. "This is so goddamn unfair! You're a bloody were-panther and I get what? I'm a fuckin' were-woman!"

Despite himself, a hand reached up, cupping a prominent protrusion, a blush coming to his sculpted cheeks, sapphire eyes widening at the disconcerting feeling. Those... things were him and from this intimate point of view, they felt and looked huge. They shifted and wobbled with every movement, every breath, and that wasn't all that jiggled. His ass felt huge, his hips oscillated oddly with every step, and he could feel the blowing on the lower part of his calves, as his jeans couldn't cover his noticeably longer legs.

Tentatively, a hand reached lower, hesitated for a long moment, then slipped inside his pants. His face went sickly pale at what he found... or rather, didn't find. There was no denying it - it was gone.

This was by far the weirdest and most terrifying experience in his life. Oddly enough, despite his evidently new gender, considerably less muscular build, he felt every bit as strong, maybe even stronger. A burning rage filled him - it felt like his body was mocking him.

"This. Is. Utter. Bullshit!" he yelled, voice rising to a disturbing, feminine sharpness as fist slamming into the trunk of a tree with a loud thump, cracking bark.

His breathing coming in ragged, furious gasps - and unaware of how his new - and braless - assets heaved beneath his shirt, he turned to glare at Ravi with large, deep blue eyes.

"Stop laughing! This isn't funny!"

Click to reveal..

I want to thank Dawn, LydaLynn, and Forge in helping me to alter a pic to depict the new Seanette, since my only attempt, while not bad for a very first try ended up rather... exaggerated.

But, yeah, Sean has a nice rack.

[SalmonMax]

Renata blinked in surprise at the...admittedly not entirely unpleasant...sight of Sean's new assets. Abruptly she laughed and said to Mari, "Guess this powers thing isn't always a good thing. Maybe I shouldn't be so jealous."

Still grinning she went over to Sean and clapped 'his' shoulder good-naturedly.

"Relax," she suggested. "You never changed before now. Maybe going through the door's what does it. Try going back through and see if you change again."

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

"No, it's not funny." Ravi said with scalpel-smoothness, still smiling somewhat sardonically. "Your reaction, on the other hand, is hilarious."

Sean growled with feminine fury and stepped towards him. Ravi stepped smoothly away, all grace and poise and lithe quick balance where Sean felt clumsy and... bouncey. Dammit.

"Stop and think." Ravi said with quiet force. "Your mother is from here. This..." and he smiled and gestured at Sean's chest "Or should I say these, are probably due to that. You're not so much a woman as a Chideran, would be my guess."

Letting Sean digest that he turned and looked around at the trees, then back at the group.

"In the interests of figuring out which way to go, I'm going to head up there and take a look." he told them casually, pointing up at the tallest tree nearby. "I'll be back in a minute or so."

He flexed his fingers, his nails transforming and shifting into hard sharp black claws. He took a couple of short steps and leapt, catching a branch ten feet from the ground and hauling himself up and slowly climbing out of sight. The frozen bark made it slow going, even with his claws and innate agility, but with a little care and attention to where he was placing his hands, the nobleman found himself in the upper branches of a large old tree.

He peered out at the dark landscape, trying to spot any points of light as his sensitive ears listened to his friends' voices below.

[Sylvia Dorn]

Sylvia did some blinking of her own at the situation... but not just at Sean. Like a number of things today, deja vu surrounded his change, and for that matter this winter wonderland they found themselves in. But something else was different.

The surrounding words were a world of dark green and white and deep shadows of black. But some of the clothing that they'd been wearing, clothing she'd known very well had shades of red or yellow included, were now... grey?

"Is it just me," the teacher said, blinking again around slitted eyes that shone green in the dark, "or is this world missing some colors in the spectrum?"

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan came out of the passage among the last, the sounds of laughing ahead of him. He slapped the hide door away and stumbled out into the clear space, the heavy pack throwing his balance off. "Damn its cold. Why didn't somebody tell me it would be cold? What the hell? I thought the Amazon was all hot and rain-forest-y."

Ryan finally resettled his pack and joined the others. Looking around, he found Ravi in a tree and the rest clustered about talking. Then he stopped and looked again, with his eyes and his other sense. Everybody was different. Not a lot, just a little here or a little there.

Or a lot.

Ryan smirked as he realized that the strange girl was in fact Sean. A wicked grin flashed across his features for an instant before he finally pushed his way into the loose circle of the others. Ryan hooked a thumb back to the door, "That was kinda weird." He looked to Sean and whistle low and appreciatively, "Hi there. Are you part of the greeting party?" Ryan made a point to look Sean up and down visibly, with his eyes. It was pretty obvious that it was Sean, and even Ryan wasn't that dense, but it occasional paid to play up the expected image. "Tell me beautiful, do you have a customary way of warming guests?"

[Micah]

Micah stumbles out into the night, his duffel still over his shoulder, and the bat in his left hand. Looking around, he sees Ravi leaping into the tree, and the rest of the travelers engaged in conversation. His eyes are drawn to the light being held by a somewhat-familiar looking young woman. He looks at the woman trying to focus on what is familiar about her, when he realizes that the woman shares several features of his dorm-mate. Micah gets an incredulous look on his face and speaks in a trembling voice, "Sean, is that you? What happened?"

As he speaks the light flashes over to Micah, revealing some startling changes to Micah's features. Where once his skin had been slightly tanned, it now held a lightly metallic sheen to it. And his eyes were strikingly changed as well, going from a dark brown iris to being solid orbs that were the color and reflectiveness of mercury.

[z022]

Lucia and her entourage had stepped through quietly at the back. Unlike any of the others, neither Rosa nor Ahvia showed any change; Ahvia still has feathers instead of hair, and Rosa was just...Rosa. As normal as a human could get. Lucia, on the other hand, found her skin tone several shades darker, near to true black than anything brown or her customary cinnamon hue; her iris' were stained black as well, though the sclera was still white. Shadows clung to her as she walked, only reluctantly returning to the ground or the objects to which they belonged. Out here, amongst the Worlds of Doors, it was obvious what power she possessed.

Once to the other side, the three slipped jackets or sweaters out from their backpacks; nothing meant for winter, but at least a little more protection from the cold. Lucia arched a brow at Sean, "Well....that's different."

Rose frowned at Ms. Dorn as the looked around. "Well, it's not like springtime in California, but everything seems in order, color-wise."

[SalmonMax]

Renata glanced at Sylvia, then looked up at where Ravi was climbing. She pursed her lips, realizing that he'd never shown an ability to change just PART of himself before. That struck her as being a lot more handy than just choosing between human and cat, on or off.

"Maybe it's because cats can't see colors the way humans can," she suggests to the teacher. "Being over here seems like it makes everyone's powers stronger."

Like Rosa, Renata herself appears unchanged from her appearance on the other side.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Ryan heard the beautiful woman's knuckles crack as Sean tightened his hands into a pair of fists at his sides. His look was venomous, though with his new voice, his enraged growl probably wasn't as intimidating as he hoped.

"It's me, you dick. Sean," he snarled, jabbing Ryan in the chest with a pair of fingers. "And if you whistle at me like that again, I'm gonna use you for a punchin' bag." He held up a fist right under his nose, and Ryan realized, instead of being a few inches shorter than him, the new (and improved?) Sean was now actually an inch taller. "My fists might not be as big, but I bet you I can still pound you every bit as hard. And that goes for you too, Ravi!" he shouted up at the tree.

Maybe it was the fury at the unfairness of it all, but Sean barely felt the cold. He shook his head, grunting a chuckle nearing hysteria as he looked down again, still disbelieving how much his field of view was obstructed by his chest. My fuckin' boobs. Tits!

In the cold light of the Maglite, Sean caught the looks from Lucia, Micah, and Swan, the girls' dark on dark, his room-mate's an oddly solid, reflective steel colour. Sean snorted. "I don't fuckin' believe it! I guess I really am Vanessa's daughter-"

Sean suddenly staggered, quick flashes of memory of Vena claiming just that, that he was an 'aberration,' assaulting him. He raised a hand to rub his head, and shivered, feeling his arm pressing against his breast. "Thanks, Mother!"

Sean turned a scathing glance on Renata at her comment, his lips - lush, very kissable lips, she noted - curled in a sneer as he shifted his weight and gestured at himself. "Being a fuckin' chick is not a fuckin' superpower, Ren. My power is not going from flat to whatever the hell these are. Dees? Double-Dees?? I don't care if my Mom and sisters are Chideran Amazons, chick-hood ain't a power. The only power I noticed they had was excessive bitchiness." Sean turned a warning glare on everyone. "No one say a damned thing. I think I've got a perfect right to be pissed, at the moment."

Sean hitched up his backpack, and twisted, reaching for a side pocket. He yelped another curse as the arm reaching across his chest moved one of the straps of his backpack, causing it to pinch a shockingly sensitive nipple. "Goddammit! Screw this! I'm steppin' back to the other side and seein' if I get my cock back and rid of these tits."

Sean finally managed to pull out the small notepad of paper and a handful of feathers, rearranged and tightened the straps of his pack - unaware that in the process, he had also tugged his sweater tight too - and began to stalk back to the tent-flap Door.

[Autumn Keane]

First blackness, then...

The first thing that registered was the cold, sharp and biting; Autumn blinked in the near-darkness, taking a few steps away from the Door. She stared, wide-eyed, into the shadows between the trees, apparently oblivious to the shenanigans going on around her.

"What is that...?" she murmured, tilting her head to one side as if listening.

Voices? she wondered, frowning, in consternation as she tried to focus on what they were saying over the other students' chatter. I'm not even sure that's English. A soft, slow creaking, punctuated by an occasional crack or groan, issued from the trees in a hushed chorus of mutterings. It reminded her of the way Gran 'Lula and her friends gossiped when they got together to play Canasta. It was physically uncomfortable to hear words being shaped by sounds like that, words she could almost make out. Grimacing, the redhead pinched the bridge of her nose in an effort to stave off the headache slowly taking root just behind her brow.

"Okay," she said finally, banishing the forest's nattering from her awareness and turning back to the others. She blinked again, as what she'd intended to say completely slipped her mind. What the hell happened when I wasn't looking? Something faintly radiant and Ravi-shaped glowed with dim phosphorescence in a tree, Lucia had gone over to the dark side, Ms. Dorn's eyes were practically glowing in the dim light, and there was a nicely rounded posterior attached to a tall, leggy, black-haired woman sashaying back toward the Door. Surreptitiously, Autumn glanced down at herself, and sighed in relief as everything seemed to have remained where it should've been.

"Um, anyway, once we figure out where we are, if we can... Actually, does anyone know where these Chiderans are supposed to be, relative to the Door?"

The rustling crept back into the forefront of her mind along with that dull, throbbing ache; without thinking, she whirled back around toward the trees, fists clenched.

"Do you mind?! We're trying to make a plan, here!"

[Sylvia Dorn]

Moving quickly to intercept, Sylvia took Sean by the arm. "Sean," she said in a voice just above a whisper but still firm, "wait. First of all, we're all showing changes over here, even if yours are a little more obvious. But more to the point, if you are Chideran, you could very well be the best bet we have in establishing a good rapport with the locals. So I'm asking you to be strong right now. There's plenty of time later to find out what happens when we go back through."

In a more normal tone, she called out to the rest of the group. "I'm betting that these Doors aren't all that far from some kind of civilization, regardless of the world, particularly if the locals know about them. They're too useful to be relegated to isolation." She added, "And I suspect your probably right, Renata; it caught me by surprise, but now that I think about it, this is how I see things when I'm... changed."

[Dawn OOC]

Ravi secured his perch and looked around. To his surprise, there were stone walls all around them, set well back from the Door and obscured behind trees and plant growth. Beyond those were the lights of a city – not a glowing beacon like modern metropolis. Instead it was a hulking mass of stone with the occasional flame dancing in a window or on a torch, held by an indistinct human form.

Something poked him in the back and Ravi turned. A woman crouched in the branches, a short sword in her hands. “Down,” she growled. “Slowly.”

As Sean turned, the young woman/man caught sight of Swan’s face. Her black eyes were watching him with interest, a stark, assessing gaze that normally wouldn’t have been a problem coming from a woman. But he looked like this and memories of their ‘little talk’ last night flooded into his mind. He was suddenly keenly aware that Swan was seeing him in a new light – and she appeared to like it. It was a little too much and Sean stalked back to the Door, only to stop as a spear tip eased through the opening. But instead of appearing from blackness, the woman carrying the spear stepped through a normal frame of wood and pelt, snow and trees behind her.

The others were becoming aware that they were being surrounded. The women encircling them were all dressed in furs and armor, and each of them carried a weapon which they seemed more than capable of using. They formed a loose circle around the group, staring with hard eyes. One of them hissed suddenly and stepped in front of Swan, swinging her spear butt at the Caramine. When Swan ducked, the Chideran reversed her swing and poked her in the stomach with the metal that capped the butt. Swan tumbled into the snow and started to get up, her face furious, only to freeze when the spear was flipped around and now the sharp tip hovered over her heart.

[Sylvia Dorn]

As the situation suddenly and drastically changed, Sylvia's instincts were to protect the children. Problem was, choosing who to protect; they were surrounded and (relatively) unarmed.

The spearwoman who put Swan to the ground decided things for her.

"Leave her alone," the teacher called out, taking careful steps to stand beside the erstwhile Caramine with hands outstretched in the universal symbol of 'I mean no harm'. "She's under control."

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

Ravi was taken aback for a moment. How the hell...? Where the hell...? Why didn't he smell or hear them? A moment's startlement gave way to sardonic amusement then, as he regarded the female warrior pointing the oversized carving knife at him.

"Of course you built walls around the Door." he sighed, peering down through the branches to see other warriors surrounding his friends. Then one of them struck Swan down and appeared to be about to skewer her.

"Hoy!" he shouted, his voice filled with indignant outrage. He dropped from his perch, landing sure-footedly on a branch ten feet below him, then repeated the maneuver again to another branch 12 feet below that. A few seconds later the young man dropped squarely into the clearing from the tree, landing in a crouch before straightening up. "Don't kill our prisoner." he said heatedly, glancing at Swan then the woman with the spear. He pointed at the female Sean. "She's hers. She came to our world, and now she's wearing her collar. It's a bit rude to go around killing other people's prisoners."

[z022]

Normally, I'd find something offensive in that. Right now, though, I think I could kiss that man. Cat-man. Whatever. Lucia didn't like having spears pointed at her any more than the rest of her classmates, and she'd frozen just like any person never actually faced with deadly violence before would. Thank god one of us is quick on their feet and has some brains to go with it.

She smiled nervously at the woman closest to her, hold up her hands in what she hoped was the universal 'I'm unarmed, please don't kill me with your pointy spear of death' sign. "We're not here to make trouble. We just want to talk. We've brought gifts and we're mostly unarmed." Well, I'm unarmed unless you count a bottle of mace, and I don't think anyone else brought anything as obvious as a sword. "Can any of you understand us?"

[SalmonMax]

As warriors started coming out of the woodwork, Renata hurried to Mari's side and edged in front of her, putting herself between the freshman and the 'amazons' with her feet apart and hands raised to defend. She said in a low voice over her shoulder, never looking away from her foes, "Don't panic. Just stay behind me."

The amazons closed in slowly, forcing Renata and Mari to step back, one step at a time towards the others.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Click to reveal.. (Control Roll)

Resisting Soul Burn: 4d10.hitsopen(8,10) = 4 Successes

Sean's surprise at the sight of the Chiderans was washed away under a tide of red rage when one of them attacked Swan, knocking her to the ground and holding spear to her heart. He almost launched himself at the Chideran, regardless of the consequences, before a) it computed that the Chideran was a girl and he didn't hit girls, attacking the Chideran would probably result in all the other ones, armed with a variety of sharp cutlery, attacking him and his friends, and c) he wasn't even sure he could fight with his new proportions jiggling around with a life of their own. That would probably end up bad and I don't want to die a woman.

Holding back his anger - and it was an effort, his fury running unusually hot - Sean knelt by Swan's side, wrapping a hand in the trailing bit of belt they where using as a collar for Swan, pulling her head up slightly. Giving Swan an apologetic look he hoped the woman with the spear didn't see, he turned and faced Swan's assailant with hard, blue eyes. His free hand was knotted into a fist, cocked at his side, just in case the Chideran looked ready to plunge her spear home.

"Like my friends said, she - Swan - is... mine," Sean said in his new, womanly voice, though his tone came out much colder than he expected. Just saying the word made his gut clench in disgust.

"We're here from Dalton and we are here to speak with Van - Vena. I am her..." Another painful admission, the more so for being seemingly true. "... daughter. Sean."

[Ryan Jackson]

"Damnit!" Ryan yelled as the women surrounded the party. At the edges of his senses space changed somehow and he became aware of a wall ringing the immediate area, and a vast stone city beyond. "If I had a dollar for every time somebody snuck up on me I could afford to not be here right now," Ryan complained.

[Atomicweasel]

“Okay. I’m not panicking.” Mari answered Renata in a tiny voice. She had barely come to her senses, glancing about her in wonderment at the snowy landscape, hardly even making sense of the heated exchange between Sean—Sean!?—and Ravi. And now she was surrounded. By very big, angry, women. With very big, pointy, spears.

A fist of fear in Mari’s chest made it difficult for her to breathe, let alone speak. And so she was surprised to hear her own voice saying, “We’re not looking for a fight. We came to ask for your help.”

The warrior women paid her no heed, backing her into a tight circle with her friends. Mari felt Renata bump up against her, her thigh brush against Sean’s shoulder where she knelt by Swan. It was then that Ms. Dorn and the students around Mari began to notice how strong they felt, how hale. Their blood flowed hot and vibrant inside of them. Their senses seemed even sharper, their muscles tingled with energy and vigor...while the Amazonian captors suddenly discovered their spears felt heavier than usual and their movements began to grow sluggish.

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

[Dawn OOC]

Swan had put her hand on Sean’s foot when she took the Caramine's ‘leash’. He wasn’t sure why she’d done that, but it seemed to surprise the Chideran. His announcement, combined with Ravi’s information, seemed to startle all of the women, and their stances shifted from hostile to wary. One by one, the weapons rose slowly.

“You are of the Midnight Ice line?” the Chideran who had attacked Swan asked Sean.

“Uh… sure,” Sean guessed. “If that’s Vena’s line.”

The woman stared at him; she had dark skin, best called ebony, but her hair was a fiery red and her eyes were pale green. No earthly woman could have managed that coloration; genetics would have made it impossible. She was also hot, but not a single woman here was unattractive. “You know nothing of us,” the Chideran stated. “I have found Vena’s other daughters to be ignorant of their culture, but you surpass them. And Vena mentioned no other daughters.” Her eyes narrowed. “Has your soul guttered?”

“Later, Quixa,” another woman spoke up. She was a graceful blonde with black eyes and a light tan. “They look cold and are of Dalton, by their clothing. We will treat them as friends – so long as their prisoner behaves and remains on her leash.” She turned and began to walk. “This way.” The women didn’t seem inclined to wait for them, marching on into the woods. After a moment, Ravi shrugged and took Mari’s hand, gently tugging her after them. Sean helped Swan to her feet before following. The rest lagged after in various states of emotional being.

The path through the woods led past a cold firepit, which was vaguely familiar to Frida. Beyond that was a wall, and beyond that was a city. It was composed of stone and thatched roofing, while ornate wooden poles decorated the corners of most buildings with vertical scenes of battle and hunts.

It was only a short walk through the wood-clapped streets to what looked like a Viking longhouse. Their host, the blonde opened the door and said, “Wait in here. Food will be brought, as well drink. Our Pimszt will come as well, and other of your line.”

“Wait,” Ahvia asked quickly. “I would know the name of the one who has been so helpful, if it pleases.”

“Mermin of DoorHold Clan, of the Summer Shadow line,” the Chideran said with a smile and a bow. She left them then, only to have a handful of men hurry in. They were bearing platters of food and pitchers of drink, which they set on the table. Some of them, while clearly male, weren’t human. They left without speaking, not even replying to questions. And then the group was alone again.

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

"Cosy." Ravi said, squeezing Mari's hand gently before letting it go and stepping over to the table. Bending slightly, his catlike eyes narrowed, he sniffed at a few dishes and pitchers at random, then straightened up and nodded at the others. "Smells fine." he announced, snagging a small bowl of dried fruit and offering a piece to Mari. He looked around at the others, and nodded at Ahvia.

"I can't fault Chideran hospitality." he said with a grin as he popped a morsel between his sharp teeth and chewed. "I'm guessing that the Clan is the people who mind this town. 'Doorhold' signifies that it's their job to watch the Door, which makes sense. The line would be their genetic descent, naturally." He gazed at Sean. "Black hair, blue eyes. Midnight Ice line." He looked back at Ahvia, nodding thoughtfully. "Blonde hair, black eyes: Summer Shadow line. The naming convention makes sense."

Setting the bowl of fruit down he took a pitcher poured enough cups of the drink within for everyone. Taking two, he offered one to Mari and stepped away from the table, waving at the drinks.

"We're on another world." he said with a smile, excitement dancing in his glittering green eyes. "If that doesn't call for a drink, nothing does."

[SalmonMax]

Renata frowns as she sits down and pours liquid from a pitcher into a wooden cup.

"It seems like it makes sense," she says, "but when you think about it, it kind of doesn't. I mean, hair and eye color aren't always the same between parents and children."

She shook her head and sniffed what was in the cup cautiously.

"At least, not unless there's some serious issues with their...genetic...stuff."

Still cautious, she tries a sip of the drink.

[Dawn OOC]

The drink was sweet but not sweet enough to cover the faint taste of alcohol. It tasted a lot of like hard cider though there was a hint of something else in the spices. The fruits offered were small, in line with crabapples and about as bitter as Granny Apples. A kind of red berry was actually tart rather than sweet but for those who liked that kind of food, quite good. The dried meats were the true delights; the Chideran knew how to prepare meat, without question.

There were no chairs to sit on, but there were stools arrayed around the room. One of the men had lit torches, and by their light, the wooden carvings that decorated the walls could be seen. There were scenes of battle in here; no hunting, just woman against a variety of enemies.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Sean followed Ravi down the path on auto-pilot, reeling from what he was learning, trying to hover protectively at Swan's side, though now, it felt like a joke, even if he was a few inches taller than he had been. If anything, Swan was being more protective of him!

He honestly wasn't sure what he was expecting coming here - though facing his mother and sisters, and earning their impressed regard might have figured into it. It should have been exciting, thrilling, stepping into an entirely new world, full of amazon hotties. The only problem was, he was one. And from the way that crimson-haired, obsidian-skinned babe had disparaged his upbringing, a particularly ignorant and dumb one.

Does a bimbo know if she's a bimbo? he thought angrily as he stomped into guest-longhouse and dropped onto one of the stools, barely aware of what Mermin was saying or the meek men were doing until they were gone.

"Another world," Sean snorted, sitting on the stool with his legs stretched out before him and his head in his hands. Everything felt different, breathing felt different, with his very own pair of tits hanging of his chest. His legs looked like they were twice as long and he felt like he was walking on stilts; his feet rattled around inside his boots. "I need a drink, but not for that. Another body, more like."

Swan was happy to oblige, still concerned for the young man-come-woman, and admittedly, intrigued by the change. She poured him a large cup of the cider analogue and filled a wooden trencher with slices of meat and several of the mini Granny Smith apples. She took a seat next to him and handed him the drink.

Despite his misery, Sean nodded his gratitude, draining the cup in one pull, hissing at the bite, then digging in on the meat, glad for the distraction. Fuck! Even eating feels different! His jaw was a bit slimmer, teeth straighter, sharper, he almost choked when he bit his tongue. He couldn't tell if he was tasting things differently or if is was the food.

"Yeah, I'd say the Chiderans have some serious issues with their genetics," Sean commented, chuckling with near hysteria that was suspiciously close to a giggle. He pulled out the neck of his sweater and shirt and peeked inside. He laughed again the sight, but cut-off quickly when he saw the new flesh shake.

"My older sister looks exactly like my mother, except looking maybe a few years younger. My younger sister showed every sign of turning out the same. And when I was younger, everyone said I looked a good deal like her too. Guess now, It's even more true."

With a sudden spike of rage at that thought, Sean threw his empty wooden cup at wall, which just bounced off and rolled across the floor. For some reason, this infuriated him even more and he stood up, stalked over to the cup and stomped it to smithereens. It was only marginally satisfying.

"God! Dammit! I wish I had never heard of the fuckin' Door!"

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan set his bag down and immediately helped himself to the food. Stuffing his face on the various fruits and nuts and meats before washing it all down with several cups of the cider-like drink. "This is pretty good. Kinda like jerky," Ryan said gnawing on a hunk of dried meat as he stepped away from the table and started to look over the building.

The building had only the on entrance, no windows, and two apertures in the roof to allow smoke to escape keeping the air inside fresh. The building itself was built of large and solid posts and beams, with rafters crossing the room short-wise between the walls. Ryan tested the beams, they were more than up to the task of supporting his jaunt to the roof.

"I'm gonna take a birds eye view," he announced. "Maybe see if I can get out onto the roof and look around outside. Scout a bit. See where they took Sean. That kind of thing." He jumped up and grabbed one of the beams and quickly scaled it to the rafter and from there swung up to the roof. In less than a handful of seconds he was wriggling through smoke and out onto the roof of the building. Once outside he crouched silently and looked around the village, seeing with his eyes and with his other sense. "I gotta name that thing," he mumbled quietly to himself. "Radar ... oh! Rydar! Sweet!"

Click to reveal..

Parkour 4 to take a rote to climb

Parkour 3 to climb as an instant action (up to 30')

Roof openings are 20' up, -1 die (per the Parkour 3 rules)

Strength 2 + Athletics 4 = 6 dice - 1 penalty = 5 dice

5d10.hitsopen(8,10)=4

Rote action, re-rolling 3 dice:

3d10.hitsopen(8,10)=0

Stealth when outside: Dex 4 + Stealth 4

8d10.hitsopen(8,10)=3

[Frida Ricci]

Frida was silent from the moment she stepped through the door. This all felt so.. familiar. The cold, and the trees, and the Amazonian women - the Chiderans. And somewhere, in the back of her mind, she could hear music playing.. a haunting melody that tugged at her unconscious like a dream half-remembered. She allowed herself to be led into the room with the others, and if she was acknowledged or noticed less than usual, it didn't seem to register with her, for that was her everyday life. She casually picked up one of the cups - briefly noting the rustic but not unskilled tribal pattern carvings etched into the wood - and began to circle the room slowly, studying the carved depictions. Finally, out of nowhere, she stopped and turned towards the others.

"I think I've been here before."

For the first time since they'd arrived, people focused on Frida, and realized that they hadn't really noticed her since crossing through the door. It took them a moment to absorb the difference - Frida was always pale, but now she seemed even more muted, as if some of the color had not only leeched out of her skin, but out of her eyes and her hair, and even her clothes. Despite that, she seemed to emit a faint glow. It wasn't so much a light as it was a slight haziness, as if she were a bit blurry around the edges. And her voice, when she spoke, was strange as well. It sounded almost like an echo, or perhaps a reverberation. Not the cold, empty sound that she heard when communicating with spirits (fortunately for the rest), but still eerie and unsettling, nonetheless.

"Not here, I mean.. I don't remember this. But.. I remember this place. These women. And there was something.. I was supposed to do. Something to take back. I.. can't remember..."

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

Ravi lounged on one of the stools, hardly even trying to restrain his grin as he helped himself to a handful of the dried meat and watched Sean's tantrum with obvious schadenfreude. He chewed on some of the jerky-like stuff, agreeing with Ryan, and sipped at his drink.

"Look at it as a chance to get in touch with your feminine side." The insouciant nobleman suggested with an expression of faux-innocence that fooled nobody. "And if you need any pointers..." he left what he was going to say unsaid, shrugging gracefully before taking another drink, grinning into his cup as he studied the others.

The others did look different, for the most part. Renata and Mari were normal, Ryan was as Ryan-ish as ever, including scampering up to the roof like a squirrel. Lucia seemed odd, shadows clinging to her like molasses, which didn't surprise him after the other night.

Frida and Autumn seemed much changed, though. Frida seemed ghostlike, her haunting beauty now less of a metaphor and her voice... well, it raised a few hairs Ravi wasn't sure he possessed. In this shape anyway.

And Autumn? Autumn glowed, a coruscating aurora of greens, golds, and russet hues that was hard not to stare at. For a long moment Ravi did just that, trying to decipher what that meant and unaware that the others couldn't perceive it. In stark contrast to Frida, the redhead seemed to be more present, more real even than the rampaging Seanetta.

Curiouser and curiouser.

"Are you alright, Frida?" he asked her with a faint narrowing of his cats eyes. "I wouldn't worry overmuch. We know our memories have been toyed with - all we can do is hope that we can cope, regardless."

[Atomicweasel]

Mari sipped from her drink, and then coughed into a hastily raised arm as she realized it was alcohol. “Ick,” the lissome little teen pronounced, placing her cup squarely on the table and then extending her fingers to push it slightly farther away. She too watched Sean rage and storm about, though she took no pleasure from the spectacle of Sean’s transgendered torment. She’d made up her mind to go offer some words of comfort, but just then Sean launched his attack on the wooden cup and Mari chose instead to stay put on her stool next to Ravi. Mari was too preoccupied watching Sean’s outburst to notice Ravi’s eyes had wandered to Autumn and stuck there.

“Don’t tease...” Mari paused, trying to decide on ‘him’ or ‘her,’ and settled for a look of mild reproach. “he—um, Sean’s obviously pretty upset, and like, you wouldn’t like it if—“ abruptly Mari bounded off her stool. “Hector!” she gasped. “Remember!” She tugged on Ravi’s arm, distracting him from his inspection of Frida. “He called Sean the boy who wasn’t or isn’t or something like that—right, Ren?” Mari rounded on Renata for support. “And he called you kitty cat and he said, he said...” Mari trailed off as she caught sight of Frida. “Um.” Mari tilted her head back. A comical little frown brought out her dimples. “Frida. You’re all...fuzzy.”

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

[SalmonMax]

"He did say that," Renata said, drinking another gulp from her cup with a wince. It was sharper than the beer she'd had. Harder, but tangier too. Sweeter. She liked it. As she refilled her cup she followed Mari's gaze to Frida and nearly dropped that wooden mug.

"She...you look like a ghost, Frida," Renata advised. "You feel okay? Cuz you sure don't look it."

[Autumn Keane]

Okay, Autumn thought resignedly, dropping onto one of the wooden stools with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she concentrated on breathing normally. Her head was throbbing; there was movement, subtly shifting colours all around the periphery of her vision, and the faint sound-shapes of... almost-words lingered beneath every rustle, every creak and groan and echo. If this is me hallucinating, I just need to keep calm. If it's not, someone else will mention it. Just... don't talk about it. Don't say anything about it at all unless somebody else brings it up first.

With a groan, Autumn let her bag slide down her shoulder to the ground at her side. Dubiously, she pulled one of the mugs toward her and peered at the fruity liquid. It smelled amazing, and didn't seem noxious, judging by the way the others were drinking it. Over the lips, and past the gums... The tart sweetness of whatever-it-was flooded her tastebuds in a sharp wave of flavours, and the redhead's eyes opened wide in pleased surprise as she swallowed.

"This is really, really good," she said quietly, wonderingly, and her shoulders twitched in a shrug before she took another long draught from the carved mug. Autumn glanced over the rim as she drank, surveying the others from beneath her lashes. Frida and Lucia made her eyes ache a bit, just looking at them; Sean was even hotter, with her cheeks all flushed and angry and her eyes bright; Ryan, Mari, Renata, and Ms. Dorn looked pretty much the same as they had, but she supposed any changes in them could just be too subtle for her to notice. Ravi, though...

With an odd prickling at the back of her neck, Autumn met the young lordling's lambent gaze with a suppressed shiver. It wasn't the torchlight, or the effect of moonlight on snow; he was actually glowing. Well, sort of, she amended warily. There was a shimmer of pulsing hues surrounding him: threads of sunlit gold weaving through verdant greens dappled with smudges of scarlet, and beneath it all, a lingering shadow that crowned and veiled him all at once. Transfixed, she stared into Ravi's inscrutable feline eyes, until-

Mari tugged at his arm, the sudden movement jarring the hypnotized young girl abruptly out of her reverie. Another shudder slithered up her spine, and she quickly drained her mug to pour another. Whether he was really a skinwalker, or something else completely, staring like that could not be healthy.

"They're right," she said unnecessarily, looking at Frida again to banish Ravi's aura from her field of vision. "You do look different, faded. Like an old, old photograph. Do you, you know... feel any different?"

[Frida Ricci]

For the first time, Frida really focused on the people around her, instead of the place and the things. Her eyes narrowed quizzically, and she scowled in confusion.

"No - I feel fine. The same. But.. you all look different, actually. You're the ones that look like ghosts. Except, not really.. not as much as the ones back at Dalton. And you sound kind of odd, too - like you're in a tunnel."

She swallowed, her confused expression transitioning into unease. She stepped forward, towards the table, and sat the drink down on the table slowly. Then she stepped back and looked at it for a long moment. To the others, the moment Frida sat it down it became more solid, like it was part of the real world again, and not a drink held by some ghostly apparition.

"That looks fine.. but so does the building. It's just the people that look strange. What.. what do you think is going on?"

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

"I don't know." Ravi said as he took another swig from his mug. A faint smile played around his mouth as he looked at her, despite the equally faint concern in his eyes. "But if you see a bright light, don't go into it."

Mari slapped his arm gently, giving him an admonishing glance. "Don't be mean, you- Oh!" For the first time she'd caught sight of the cat-like pupils in her boyfriend's shining gaze and the sharp tips to his teeth as he smiled. "You've gone, uh, catty." she finished.